Genus RHUS, Linn. 



Anacardiacae. Pentandria Trigynia, 



Syst. Nat. Syst. Lin. 



Synonymes. 



Rhus, Ehamnus, Cctinus, Zizyphus, Myrica, Toxicodendron, Of Authors. 



Derivations. The name, Rhus, '13 derived from the Greek rhous, or more remotely, from the Celtic word, rhudd, a syno- 

 nyme of rud, red; in allusion to the colour of the fruit and leaves of some of the species in autumn. Cotinus is the narne of 

 a tree with red wood, descrilwd by Pliny, as growing on the Apennines. The other names belong to genera which were sup- 

 posed by some botanists to include species more properly coming under the head oirhtis. 



Generic Characters. Sexes hermaphrodite, dioecious, or polygamous. Calyx small, 5-parted, persistent. 

 Petals ovate, and inserted into a calycine disk ; all of them in the flowers of the male and hermaphro- 

 dite sexes bearing anthers. Ovary single, perhaps from defect, sub-globular, of 1 cell. Styles 3, short, 

 or not any. Stigmas 3. Fruit an almost dry drupe of 1 cell, with a bony nut, which includes a single 

 seed ; and, in some instances, 2 3 seeds ; when one, perhaps, by defect. Each seed is pendulous by a 

 thread, (the raphe,) that rises from the bottom of the cell. Cotyledons leafy, their edges, on one side, 

 and the radicle, in contact. De Candolle, Prodromus. 



^HE genus Rhus chiefly consists of deciduous shrubs, generally 

 with alternate compound leaves, and are natives of Europe, Asia, 

 and North and South America. The foliage widely varies, both 

 in form and size ; and, in autumn, before it falls, it changes to a 

 yellow, dark-red, or scarlet, on which account, at that season, 

 _ it is highly ornamental. Don, in "Miller's Gardeners' Dic- 

 tionary," describes ninety-seven species of this genus; but Mr. Loudon was of 

 the opinion that, if it were possible to bring them all together, and cultivate them 

 in the same garden, he questioned much whether there would be found more 

 than a fourth part of them entitled to be considered specifically or permanently 

 distinct. Most of them are poisonous, some of which are highly so, and probably 

 they all may be used in tanning, and dyeing yellow and black. The species 

 most worthy of note, and which have been cultivated for ornament, or have been 

 applied to useful purposes in the arts, are the Rhus typhina, venenata, aromat- 

 ica, and copallina, for ornament ; and the Rhus radicans, for medicine, in North 

 America ; the Rhus cotinus and coriaria, for tanning and dyeing, of the shores 

 of the Mediterranean ; and the Rhus vernicifera, or varnish-producing suraaC; of 

 Japan and Nepal. * 



