1886.] NOTES ON THE GENUS RHUS. 571 



rZCJ^JA BRFAVERIANA. 



WE cull the following account of this new Californiau conifer 

 from The Procccdliujs of the American Aeademy : — 

 " Branches slender, often elongated and pendent, pubenilent ; leaves 

 5 to 12 lines long, ^ to nearly 1 line wide, strictly sessile upon 

 the slender base, obtuse, smooth and rounded or slightly carinate 

 above, stomatose beneath on each side of the slightly prominent 

 mid-nerve ; cones 3 inches long, narrowly cylindrical, attenuate at 

 base ; bracts linear-oblong (2 inches long), a fourth of the length 

 of the puberulent scale, which is obovate, with the rounded thickish 

 summit entire; seed 1^ lines long, the wing 4 lines long by 2^ 

 broad. This unusually distinct species has been found (by Thomas 

 Howell, in June 1884) only at high elevations in the Siskiyow 

 INIountains, California, and on the head-waters of the Illinois river, 

 in rather dry rocky ground. It grows to a height of from 100 

 feet to 150 feet, and a diameter of 1 to 3 feet. Bark reddish. 

 The specific name is given in compliment to Professor W. H. Brewer, 

 who in connection with the California State Geological Survey had 

 so much to do with the botany of the State, both in the field, and 

 in the after disposal of the collections of the survey. As he took 

 special interest in the trees of the coast, and collected a large amount 

 of material for their study, it is fitting thus to connect his name 

 with the forest trees of California." 



NOTUS ON THE GENUS RHUS {SUMACH). 



THIS is an interesting genus, alike on account of the products 

 of some of the species and the elegance of character of the 

 leaves of many of them. They are small growing trees or shrubs, 

 inhabitants of the South of Europe, Cape of Good Hope, North 

 America, China, Japan, Java, and Xepal. There are some forty 

 species to be found scattered over these several countries, and while 

 they preserve certain points of family resemblance in common, they 

 present, as might be expected from such a wide range of habitat, 

 very strong individual characteristics. Comparatively few are culti- 

 vated in this country, — six or seven being as many as may be found 

 in the lists of our leading nurserymen, — though why they should 

 not be more generally cultivated, considering the elegant form of 

 the foliage and the Ijrilliant colours which that of many of them 

 assume in autumn, is rather difficult to explain, except, perhaps, 

 that the baleful reputations of some as to their poisonous nature 

 may have laid all under suspicion. 



