NOTES ON INDIGENOUS TREES AND SHRUBS. 



^61 



After crawling beneath them, or climbing 

 over their tops, and having his clothes torn, 

 he may perhaps wish the " Laurels" less 

 numerous. Ail our Azaleas are now re- 

 ferred to the genus Rhododendron, except- 

 ting Azalea procumbens, 



RHUS COTINOIDES. 



Leaves oblong ovate, or ovate lanceolate, 

 entire ; part of the flowers abortive ; pedicels 

 at length elongated, and clothed with long 

 shaggy hairs ; flowers bright green ; pani- 

 cles terminal, scarcely exceeding in length 

 the leaves ; segments of cal3'^x acute, and 

 shorter than the petals ; petals oblong 

 ovate, obtuse. Tree, twenty-five to forty 

 feet high ; bark of the trunk and large 

 branches rough, resembling that of the com- 

 mon locust, (^Robinia pseudacacia') ; leaves 

 large, very smooth, often 6 — 8 inches long, 

 and 3—4 inches wide. Branches when 

 first broken, emit an unpleasant odor, and 

 are probably poisonous to some persons, 

 judging from the burning sensation which 

 ihey gave our hands ; which have never 

 been poisoned by any species of Rhus. 

 Flowers April. R. Cotinoides, Nuttal in 

 Herb. Acad. Philad.,but not described. R. 

 Cotmus, Torr. and Gray's Fl. 1, p. 216. 

 Mr. Nuttall discovered it on the high rocky 

 banks of the Grand river, Arkansas, in fruit 

 only. We found numerous small trees of 

 this species, near the top of the mountain, 

 on the road side, 3 miles from Ditto's land- 

 ing, on the Tennessee river, and about 10 

 miles from Huntsville, in the state of Ala- 

 bama. Again twelve miles from Huntsville, 

 on the route to Winchester, in Tennessee, 

 we found it in flower, near the base of the 

 mountain, about three miles from the house 

 of Mr. Bailus, with whom we had staid the 



preceding night, and started next morning 

 on foot to visit the nearest mountain. Here 

 we saw trees of R. cotinoides at least a foot 

 or more in diameter, and about fifty feet 

 high, growing near streams, and in the rich 

 alluvial soil at the base of the mountains. 

 It is a very beautiful tree, and we hope that 

 it will, ere long, be introduced into cultiva- 

 tion. We found it in the spring of 1842. 



ZAXTHOXYLUM CAROLINIAXUM, Lamarck. 



Prickly Ash of Southern States. 



Leaves pinnate ; leaflets ovate-lanceolate 

 or falcate-lanceolate, petiolate, crenately 

 serrate, glabrous : flowers in large terminal 

 umbellate panicles; sepals minute; carpels 

 sessile, generally by threes. 



A small tree about twenty feet high, and 

 2-4 inches in diameter, with few branches, 

 except near the summit. Leaves very 

 large, and with the petioles and branches 

 of the tree, armed with prickles ; the leaves 

 and flowers are generally aggregated at the 

 summit of the tree ; the leaves and bark 

 are very aromatic and pungent. Elliott, in 

 his Botany of South Carolina and Georgia, 

 remarks that it is apparently confined to the 

 sea coast, and Torrey and Gray, in their 

 North American Flora, state that it grows 

 in sandy soil near the sea coast, in North 

 Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. We found 

 it very abundant in the interior of Alabama, 

 growing in the richest prairie soil, by the 

 side of fences and near swamps. 



We think it well worthy of cultivation. 

 It is strange that this is not mentioned by 

 Mr. Browne, as it is far more worthy of a 

 place among the " Trees of America," than 

 the northern Prickly Ash, which is there 

 described, but no allusion made to the south- 

 ern species. S. B. Buckley. 



West Dresden, Yates Co., N. Y. 



71 



