THE AMERICAX BOTANIST 67 



hint strongly of Spring tlie farmer's boy, independent of patent 

 devices, seeks the patch of sumachs in the hillside pasture and 

 there selecting the branches or main stems of the proper size 

 and straightness, he proceeds to cut enough to furnish spiles 

 for the coming "sugaring." Our grand-mothers too had a use 

 for the sumach. They gathered the fruit or "bobs" as they 

 were called, and by boiling them made a dye that would pro- 

 duce a fine shade of silver gray. When the sumach attains to 

 any size, and it sometimes does reach a diameter of six or 

 seven inches, the wood will be seen to be of a handsome shade 

 of yellow varied by darker lines which mark the annual 

 growth. It is susceptible of considerable polish and has a fine 

 satiny luster. Although this shrub is somewhat of a nuisance 

 to the farmer by persisting in sending out a skirmish line of 

 young shoots into his cultivated fields yet that season "when 

 the purple elderberries vie with the sumach's crimson stain" 

 would loose much of its beauty were it absent from field and 

 hedgerow. 



A nearly related species is R. glabra or smooth sumach 

 as the name indicates. A glance at the new shoots will be suf- 

 ficient to identify it as they are smooth and glaucus, quite in 

 contrast to the densely hairy shoots of the more common R. 

 typhina. While walking beside the Champlain Canal recently 

 I found the bank for some distance covered with this shrub. 

 What a dash of crimson it must make on the landscape when 

 the leaves take on their autumnal coloring! Another species 

 of wide distribution is the dwarf sumach, R. copallina, easily 

 recognized by the wing-margined petioles and the dark shin- 

 ing green of the upper side of the leaflets. 



Any one who is a frequenter of swamps is familiar with 

 R. vernix, the poison sumach or dogwood as it is often called. 

 This is a handsome shrub but one much better to look upon 

 than to handle, as anyone can testify who has been afflicted 

 with its poison. It is said that the Japanese collect the sap of 



