The Collaborative International Dictionary
Hercules'-club \Hercules'-club\, Hercules'-club \Hercules'-club\, Hercules-club \Hercules-club\prop. n.
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(Bot.) A densely spiny ornamental tree ( Zanthoxylum clava-herculis) of the rue family, growing in southeast U. S. and West Indies. [WordNet sense 1]
Note: It belongs to the same genus as one of the trees ( Zanthoxylum Americanum) called prickly ash.
Syn: Hercules'-clubs, Hercules-club, Zanthoxylum clava-herculis.
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A small, prickly, deciduous clump-forming tree or shrub ( Aralia spinosa) of eastern U.S.; also called Angelica tree and prickly ash. [WordNet sense 2]
Syn: American angelica tree, devil's walking stick, Aralia spinosa.
A variety of the common gourd ( Lagenaria vulgaris). Its fruit sometimes exceeds five feet in length.
Prickly ash \Prickly ash\ (Bot.),
A prickly shrub ( Xanthoxylum Americanum) with yellowish flowers appearing with the leaves; also called toothache tree. All parts of the plant are pungent and aromatic. The southern species is Xanthoxylum Carolinianum.
--Gray.(Bot.), Hercules'-club, also called the Angelica tree.
Angelica \An*gel"i*ca\, n. [NL. See Angelic.] (Bot.)
An aromatic umbelliferous plant ( Archangelica officinalis or Angelica archangelica) the leaf stalks of which are sometimes candied and used in confectionery, and the roots and seeds as an aromatic tonic.
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The candied leaf stalks of angelica.
Angelica tree, a thorny North American shrub ( Aralia spinosa), called also Hercules' club.