504 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



acuminate, — entire, polished as if varnished above, lighter and 

 somewhat downy beneath, footstalk conspicuously winged be- 

 tween the leaflets, and apparently jointed ; becomes a deep pur- 

 ple. Flowers greenish-yellow, in a terminal panicle, the lower 

 branches of which are in the axil of leaves. 



In the sterile flowers, the calyx is 5-parted, with ovate, con- 

 cave, pointed, green segments. The petals of the corolla pale 

 yellow, concave, obovate or wedge-shaped, at last reflexed. 

 Filaments subulate, shorter than the alternate petals. Anthers 

 attached by the middle. Pollen orange. Abortive pistil short, 

 stigma reddish, 3-cleft, on a reddish, annular disk. The panicle 

 of the sterile flowers is very long, twelve to eighteen inches, 

 with the stock very downy. The sterile flowers continue to 

 open through August, while the fertile ones are almost mature. 



The fertile flowers grow in much smaller panicles, three to 

 six inches long, on shorter and less downy branches. 



Fruit a somewhat compressed, short, ovoid drupe, surmounted 

 by the tri-fid stigma and scattered with gray dots. 



The berries have the same agreeable acid as those of the 

 Smooth Sumach, and are used for the same purposes. In Mis- 

 sissippi and Missouri, the leaves are used by the Indians with, 

 or as a substitute for, tobacco. 



The varnished polish of the leaves, and the rich purple they 

 assume in autumn, as well as the scarlet of the leafy heads of 

 fruit, make this species one of the most beautiful of the genus. 



Sp. 4. The Poison Sumach. R. venenata. De Candolle. 

 Figured in Bigelow's Medical Botany, I, Plate 10. 



I have followed Torrey and Gray in the name of this plant, 

 as it is now ascertained that it is distinct from the true R. vernix 

 of Linn., Mat. Med. and of Thunburg, — R. vernicijldra, D C, 

 which it nearly resembles and with which it was long con- 

 founded. 



The Poison Sumach, known also by the names of Dogwood 

 and Poison Wood, is, perhaps, the most beautiful plant of the 

 swamps. It rises, with a stem of light ash gray, to the height of 

 eight or ten, sometimes of fifteen feet, with a diameter of two or 

 three inches, — in rare instances, these dimensions are doubled, — 



