ANACARDIACE^ 609 



appearing in early summer on slender pubescent pedicels bibracteolate near the 

 middle, in long narrow axillary pubescent panicles crowded near the ends of the 

 branches, with acute pubescent early deciduous bracts and bractlets; calyx-lobes 

 acute, one third the length of the yellow-green acute petals erect and slightly re- 

 flexed toward the apex; stamens nearly twice as long as the petals, with slender 

 filaments and large orange-colored anthers, in the fertile flower not more than half 

 the length of the petals, with small rudimentary anthers, ovary ovoid-globose, with 

 short thick spreading styles terminating in large capitate stigmas. Fruit ripening 

 in September and often persistent on the branches until the following spring, in long 

 graceful racemes, ovate, acute, often flattened and slightly gibbous, tipped with the 

 dark remnants of the styles, glabrous, striate, ivory-white or white tinged with yel- 

 low, very lustrous, and about ^' long; stone conspicuously grooved, thin, membra- 

 naceous; seed pale yellow. 



A tree, with acrid poisonous juice turning black on exposure, occasionally 20 high, 

 with a trunk o'-6' in diameter, slender rather pendulous branches forming a narrow 

 round-topped head, and slender glabrous branchlets reddish brown and covered with 

 minute orange-colored lenticels when they first appear, orange-brown at the end of 

 their first season, becoming light gray and marked by large elevated conspicuous 

 leaf-scars; more often a shrub, with several slender clustered stems. Winter-buds 

 acute and covered with dark purple scales puberulous on the back and ciliate on the 

 margins, with short pale hairs, the terminal -g'-f' long and two or three times larger 

 than the axillary buds. Bark of the trunk thin, light gray, smooth or sometimes 

 slightly striate. Wood light, soft, coarse-grained, light yellow streaked with brown, 

 with lighter colored sapwood. 



Distribution. Wet swamps often inundated during a portion of the year; northern 

 New England to northern Georgia and Alabama, westward to northern Minnesota, 

 Arkansas, and western Louisiana; common and one of the most dangerous plants 

 of the Northern American flora. An infusion of the young branches and leaves is 

 employed in homceopathic practice, and the juice can be used as a black lustrous 

 durable varnish. 



4. Rhus integrifolia, B. & H. Mahogany. 



Leaves simple or very rarely 3-foliolate, persistent, acute or rounded at the apex, 

 with thickened revolute or spinosely toothed margins, puberulous when young, and at 

 maturity l^'-3' long, I'-l^' wide, thick and coriaceous, dark yellow-green above, 

 paler below, and glabrous with the exception of the stout petioles, broad thick mid- 

 ribs, and prominent reticulate veins. Flo'wers appearing from February to April, 

 Y in diameter when expanded, on short stout pedicels, with 2-4 broadly ovate pointed 

 persistent scarious ciliate pubescent bracts, in short dense racemes forming hoary = 

 pubescent terminal panicles l'-3' in length; sepals rose-colored, orbicular, concavCi 

 ciliate on the marg^ins, rather less than half the leng^th of the rounded ciliate reflexed 

 rose-colored petals; stamens as long as the petals, with slender filaments and pale 

 anthers, minute and rudimentary in the pistillate flower; ovary broadly ovate, pubes^ 

 cent, with 3 short thick connate styles and very large 3-lobed capitate stigmas. Fruit 

 ^' long, ovate, flattened, more or less gibbous, thick, dark red, densely pubescent; 

 stone kidney-shaped, smooth, light chestnut-brown, with thick walls; seed flattened, 

 pale, with a broad dark-coloi'ed funicle covering its side. 



A tree, rarely 30 high, with a short stout trunk 2-3 in diameter, numerous 

 spreading branches, and stout branchlets covered when they first appear with thick 



