Flowers more or less polygamous. Calyx-tube coherent with the ovary, the teeth very short or almost obsolete. Petals 5, epigynous, oblong or obovate, lightly imbricated in the bud, deciduous. Stamens 5, epigynous, alternate with the petals. Styles 2--5, mostly distinct and slender, or in the sterile flowers short and united. Ovary 2--5-celled, with a single anatropous ovule suspended from the top of each cell, ripening into a berry-like drupe, with as many seeds as cells. Embryo minute.--Leaves compound or decompound. Flowers white or greenish, in umbels. Roots (perennial), bark, fruit, etc., warm and aromatic. (Derivation obscure.) § 1. ARALIA. _Flowers monœciously polygamous or perfect, the umbels usually in corymbs or panicles; styles and cells of the (black or dark purple) fruit 5; stems herbaceous or woody; ultimate divisions of the leaves pinnate._ [*] _Umbels numerous in a large compound panicle; leaves very large, decompound._ 1. A. spinòsa, L. (ANGELICA-TREE. HERCULES' CLUB.) _Shrub, or a low tree; the stout stem and stalks prickly_; leaflets ovate, pointed, serrate, pale beneath.--River-banks, Penn. to Ind., and south to the Gulf. July, Aug. 2. A. racemòsa, L. (SPIKENARD.) _Herbaceous; stem widely branched; leaflets heart-ovate_, pointed, doubly serrate, slightly downy; umbels racemose; _styles united_.--Rich woodlands, N. Brunswick to Minn., south to the mountains of Ga. July. Well known for its spicy-aromatic large roots. [*][*] _Umbels 2--7, corymbed; stem short, somewhat woody._ 3. A. híspida, Vent. (BRISTLY SARSAPARILLA. WILD ELDER.) _Stem_ (1--2° high) _bristly, leafy_, terminating in a peduncle bearing several umbels; leaves twice pinnate; leaflets oblong-ovate, acute, cut-serrate.--Rocky and sandy places, Newf. to Dak., south to the mountains of N. C. June. 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.