THE HERCULES' CLUB (Aralia spinosa, Linn.). Shrub to 15 feet. Spreading, aromatic, spiny bush, with many stout stems from the roots, or tree with club-like, spreading branches, growing very fast. Bark brown, cleft into rounded, broken ridges. Spines curved or straight, scattered over bark of stalks and twigs, even petioles of leaves. Leaves clustered at ends of branches, compound, 3 to 4 feet long, Q feet wide, on spiny petiole 18 to N inches long. Leaflets oval, pointed, serrate, turning yellow. Flowers minute in umbels com
pounded to form a pyramidal crown of bloom at the top of the tree 3 or 4 feet high, straw-colored in midsummer. Fruit few, berry-like, purple, juicy, in August. Dist.: Deep soil near streams; Allegheny slopes in Pennsylvania to Indiana and Missouri; south to Florida and Texas. Cultivated. The most luxuriant-growing tree in the temperate zone. Shoots !ruin roots grow 15 to N feet in a season.