OP THE CLASS PENTANDRIA. 81 



3 stigmas, an oblong berry, or rather drupe, in 

 many of the species containing only 1 seed. In 

 the Viburnum shrubs, too, the leaves, though some- 

 times lobed, as in the Cranberry-tree (V. oxycoccus), 

 are never compounded, as in the Elder. Among the 

 foreign species of this genus, best known to us, is the 

 early flowering Laurvstinus. 



The Sumach, or Rhus, of the Terebintaceje, 

 though placed here, has many species with dioicous 

 flowers. They are all shrubs, or small trees, many 

 with a milky sap, and some with an aromatic odor ; 

 they have ternate or pinnated leaves ; inconspicuous 

 greenish flowers, in terminal conic clusters. The 

 flowers are inferior, with a 5-parted calyx. 5 pe- 

 tals ; a small, dryish, and flattish berry, often red, 

 and then acid, or white and poisonous, including one 

 hardish 'seed, or nut. The most common, creeping, 

 and scandent kind, called Poison-vine, has ternate, 

 entire, or coarsely-toothed leaves, and clusters of 

 whitish berries. This species is, however, less ven- 

 omous than the Poison-ash, or Dogwood of New 

 England (R. vernix), which grows always in dark 

 swamps, is very smooth, with pinnate leaves in many 

 pairs, and naked, reddish petioles, the leaflets oval, 

 entire, and acuminated, the panicle loose, the flowers 

 dioicous, and the berries nearly white. 



To Pentandria tetragynia, but to no certain 

 natural order, without it may be considered as an 

 order as well as genus apart, belongs the Parnassia, 

 or Grass of Parnassus. Their white, solitary, beau- 

 tifully veined flowers may be observed in August and 

 September in considerable abundance, in the low, 

 marshy meadows of the Mew England states and 

 Canada, but chiefly in mountain meadows, and near 

 boggy springs in the southern states. Each stem is 

 embraced by a single leaf below its middle, and pro- 



