66 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



foothills of Mt. Tamalpais. It grows in dense shade on cold 

 north slopes and seems to have a special liking for the shadow 

 of the redwood belt. In the great redwood forests of Mendo- 

 cino county I found it to be especially abundant. Under some 

 giant of the forest, a dozen feet in diameter and more than 

 two hundred feet high one is apt to find a colony of Scoliopus 

 flourishing in the thick debris of leaves and twigs sent down 

 from the branches in the sky. These pygmies of the plant 

 would, it would seem, are ever loyal to the friendship of their 

 giant Antaeus. An acquaintance with the forest goes far to 

 dispel the book-learned theory that all nature is a heartless 

 "struggle for existence." The forest is a world of plant co- 

 operation and helpfulness. The removal of the trees means 

 death to many humble dwellers of the shade, and when the 

 lowly vegetation of the forest floor is destroyed by sheep^ fire, 

 or cultivation the lofty monarchs of the forest sicken and die. 

 San Ansclnio, Calif. 



THE SUMACHS. 



BY FRANK DOBBIN. 



HOW they flame out of some half-forgotten Autumn after- 

 noon ! A long hedgerow gorgeous as an Indian maid, 

 or per chance some rocky upland pasture one blaze of color 

 under the September sun, giving a foretaste of the grand 

 color scheme that Mother Nature will presently work out by 

 means of the poplars, maples and oaks. 



Rhus typhina, well named the staghorn sumach from the 

 resemblance which its branches bear to the antlers of a deer, 

 is the most common of this interesting genus. Sometimes in 

 favorable localities it grows to a height of more than thirty 

 feet, while on the other hand if the soil be poor and thin it is 

 forced to remain as a small shrub of two or three feet but still 

 bravely fulfilling its mission in the world by bearing aloft its 

 panicle of crimson fruit. When the March sunshine begins to 



