22 - RHUS RADICANS. 
compound racemes on the sides of the new 
shoots, and are chiefly axillary. The barren 
flowers have a calyx of five erect, acute segments, 
and a corolla of five oblong recurved. petals. 
Stamens erect with oblong anthers. In _ the 
centre is a rudiment of a style—The fertile 
flowers, situated on a different plant, are about 
half the size of the preceding. The calyx and 
corolla are similar but more erect. They have 
five small, abortive stamens and a roundish germ 
surmounted with a short, erect style, ending in 
three stigmas. The berries are roundish and of 
a pale green colour, approaching to white. 
_ A plant has long appeared in the Pharmaco- 
peias under the name of Rhus toxicodendron. 
Botanists are not agreed whether this plant is a 
separate species from the one under considera- 
tion, or whether they are varieties of the same. 
Linneeus made them different with the distinction 
of the leaves being naked and entire in Rhus 
radicans, while they are pubescent and angular 
in Rhus toxicodendron. Michaux and Pursh, 
whose opportunities of observation have been 
more extensive, consider the two as mere local 
‘varieties; while Elliott and Nuttall still hold 
them to be distinct species. Among the plants 
which grow abundantly around Boston, I have 
