502 ; WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



Sp. 2. The Smooth Sumach. R. glabra. L. 

 Figured in Catesby, Plate 104. 



This is a handsome, spreading, leafy bush, usually four to 

 six, rarely ten feet high, with irregular branches, growing by 

 the sides of woods and enclosures, or in barren fields, in dry 

 situations, and distinguished by its smoothness, the purple stalks 

 of its compound leaves and a long head of yellowish-green 

 flowers of an agreeable fragrance.. The recent shoots are stout, 

 smooth and of a shining green. 



The leaves are compound, often a foot or more long, with 

 from 13 to 19 leaflets, on a large, smooth stalk, purple where 

 exposed to light, swelling gradually towards the base, some- 

 times a little hairy between the leaflets. The leaflets are ses- 

 sile, oblong-lanceolate, rounded at base or heart-shaped, gradu- 

 ally tapering to a long point, somewhat reflexed at the margin, 

 with a few almost obsolete serratures, or nearly entire, or acutely 

 serrate, smooth and dark green above, glaucous beneath. Buds 

 conical, white, woolly, concealed within the swollen base of the 

 leaf-stalk. 



The flowers are in large, much-branched heads, from six to 

 twelve inches long, on the ends of the branches ; the compound 

 branchlets of the flower-head alternating, as if they were the 

 continuation of the leaves. The individual, sterile flowers are 

 on a short, somewhat hairy pedicel, greenish-yellow ; calyx 

 short, segments 5, erect, triangular or oblong and tapering, 

 green; petals of the same length or longer, concave, hairy 

 within, ending in a pointed beak, bent inwards. Stamens 

 short, issuing from beneath the edge of a scarlet, fleshy disk, 

 and bearing large anthers, opening inwards. Styles 3, scarlet, 

 club-shaped, nearly as long as the stamens. 



This plant sometimes overspreads considerable tracts in neg- 

 lected fields, and by the toughness and size of its roots renders 

 them difficult to be ploughed. 



The velvety, crimson berries, are astringent, and of an agree- 

 able acid taste, for which reason they, as well as those of R. 

 copallbia, are sometimes used as a substitute for lemon juice, 

 for various purposes in domestic economy and medicine, and to 



