602 



TREES OF NOKTH AMERICA 



greenish yellow, on slender pedicels accrescent after the flowering period, mostly 

 abortive and then becoming conspicuously tonientose-villose at nifiturity, in ample 

 loose terminal or lateral pyramidal or thyrsoidal panicles, the branches from the 

 axils of linear acute or spatulate deciduous bracts; calyx-lobes ovate-lanceolate, 

 obtuse, persistent; disk coherent with the base of the calyx and surrounding the 

 base of the ovary; petals oblong, acute, twice as long as the calyx, inserted under 

 the free margin of the disk opposite its lobes, deciduous; stamens shorter than the 

 petals, usually rudimentary or wanting in the pistillate flower; ovary sessile, obo- 

 vate, compressed, rudimentary in the staminate flower; styles 3, short and spreading 

 from the lateral apex of the ovary; stigmas large, obtuse. Fruit oblong-oblique, 

 compressed, glabrous, conspicuously reticulate-veined, light red-brown, bearing on 

 the side near the middle the remnants of the persistent styles, the outer coat thin 

 and dry; stone thick and bony. 



Cotinus is widely distributed through southern Europe and the Himalayas to 

 northern China with a single species, and is represented in the southern United 

 States by another species. 



The Old World Cotinus Cotinus, Sarg., the Smoke-tree of gardens, is often culti- 

 vated in the United States. 



The generic name is from k6tij/os, the classical name of a tree with red wood. 



1. Cotinus Americanus, Nutt. Chittam Wood. 



Leaves oval or t)bovate, rounded or sometimes slightly emarginate at the apex, 

 gradually contracted at the base, entire, with slightly wavy revolute margins, when 



(,.^92 



they mifold light purple and covered below with fine silky white hairs, and at matur- 

 ity dark green on the upper surface, pale on the lower surface, and puberulous along 

 the under side of the broad midribs and primary veins, 4'-6' long, 2'-3' wide, turning 

 in the autumn brilliant shades of orange and scarlet; their petioles stout, ^-f long. 

 FloTvers appearing late in April or early in May on pedicels ^'-f' long, and usually 

 collected 3 or 4 together in loose umbels near the ends of the principal branches of 

 puberulous terminal slender long-branched few-flowered panicles 5'-6' long and 

 2^'-3' broad, the staminate and pistillate on different individuals. Fruit produced 

 very sparingly, about ^' long, on stems 2'-3' in length; sterile pedicels becoming 



