Class V. Order III. 119 



RHUS COPALLINUM. L. Mountain or Dwarf Sumach. 



Leaves pinnate, entire; petioles membranous, joint- 

 ed ; flowers dioecious. 



A smaller shrub than the preceding. The youag branches 

 and petioles are downy. Leafets oval-lanceolate, acute, entire. 

 Between each pair the petiole spreads out into a broad leafy 

 expansion, contracted at the insertion of the leafets. Flower* 

 dioecious. 



RHUS VERNIX. L. Poison Sumach or Dogwood. 



Bigelovv, Medical Botany, PI. x. 



Leaves annual, pinnate, glabrous ; leafets oblong., 

 entire, acuminate ; panicle lax, flowers dioecious. 



This species grows in swamps, where its fine smooth leave? 

 give it the air of a tropical shrub or tree. The trunk is from 

 one to five inches in diameter, branching at top, and covered 

 with a pale greyish bark. The wood is light and brittle, and 

 contains much pith. The ends of the young shoots and the pe- 

 tioles are usually of a fine red colour, which contributes much 

 to the beauty of the shrub. The leaves are pinnate, the leafets 

 oblong or oval, entire, or sometimes slightly sinuate, acuminate, 

 smooth, paler underneath, nearly sessile, except the terminal one. 

 The flowers, which appear in June, are very small, green, in 

 loose axillary panicles. Where they appear not axillary, it is 

 because the leaf under them has been detached. The barren 

 and fertile flowers grow on different trees. The panicles of 

 barren flowers are the largest and most branched. They are 

 furnished with short, oblong bractes, and downy pedicels. The 

 calyx has five ovate segments, and the corolla live oblong, sig- 

 moid petals. The stamens are longer than the petals, and pro- 

 ject through their interstices. The rudiment of a three-cleft 

 style is found in the centre. In the fertile flowers the calyx and 

 petals resemble the last, while the centre is occupied by an oval 

 germ, ending in three circular stigmas. The fruit is a bunch of 

 dry berries, or rather drupes of a greenish white, sometimes 

 marked with slight purple veins, and becoming wrinkled when 

 old. They are roundish, a little broadest at the upper end, and 

 compressed, containing one white, hard, furrowed seed. 



