4. A. nudicaùlis, L. (Wild Sarsaparilla.) Stem scarcely rising out of the ground, smooth, bearing a single long-stalked leaf (1° high) and a shorter naked scape, with 2–7 umbels; leaflets oblong-ovate or oval, pointed, serrate, 5 on each of the 3 divisions.—Moist woodlands; range of n. 3. May, June. The long horizontal aromatic roots a substitute for officinal Sarsaparilla.
§ 2. GÍNSENG. Flowers diœciously polygamous; styles and cells of the red or reddish fruit 2 or 3; stem herbaceous, low, simple, bearing a whorl of 3 palmately 3–7-foliolate leaves, and a simple umbel on a slender peduncle.
5. A. quinquefòlia, Decsne. & Planch. (Ginseng.) Root large and spindle-shaped, often forked (4–9´ long, aromatic); stem 1° high; leaflets long-stalked, mostly 5, large and thin, obovate-oblong, pointed; styles mostly 2; fruit bright red.—Rich and cool woods, Vt. and W. Conn. to Minn., south to the mountains of Ga. July.
6. A. trifòlia, Decsne. & Planch. (Dwarf Ginseng. Ground-nut.) Root or tuber globular, deep in the ground (pungent to the taste, not aromatic); stems 4–8´ high; leaflets 3–5, sessile at the summit of the leafstalk, narrowly oblong, obtuse; styles usually 3; fruit yellowish.—Rich woods, N. Scotia to Minn., south to Ga. April, May.
Order 50. CORNÀCEÆ. (Dogwood Family.)
Shrubs or trees (rarely herbaceous), with opposite or alternate simple leaves, the calyx-tube coherent with the 1–2-celled ovary, its limb minute, the petals (valvate in the bud) and as many stamens borne on the margin of an epigynous disk in the perfect flowers; style one; a single anatropous ovule hanging from the top of the cell; the fruit a 1–2-seeded drupe; embryo nearly as long as the albumen, with large foliaceous cotyledons.—Including two genera, of which Nyssa is partly apetalous. Bark bitter and tonic.
1. Cornus. Flowers perfect, 4-merous. Leaves mostly opposite.
2. Nyssa. Flowers diœciously polygamous, 5-merous. Leaves alternate.
1. CÓRNUS, Tourn. Cornel. Dogwood.
Flowers perfect (or in some foreign species diœcious). Calyx minutely 4-toothed. Petals 4, oblong, spreading. Stamens 4; filaments slender. Style slender; stigma terminal, flat or capitate. Drupe small, with a 2-celled and 2-seeded stone.—Leaves opposite (except in one species), entire. Flowers small, in open naked cymes, or in close heads surrounded by a corolla-like involucre. (Name from cornu, a horn; alluding to the hardness of the wood.)