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68 ORD. XXXVII. -Dumose. RHUS TOXICODENDRON. 
The fructification is dioecious; the male flowers are produced in close short 
spikes, and arise from the sides of the stalks ; the calya: is composed of five ovate, 
smooth, caducous leaves ; the corolla consists of five greenish petals, twice as 
long as the calyx; the stamens are shorter than the petals, attachedto the recep- 
tacle, and support yellow ovate anthers, excavated by a longitudinal groove. 
The female flowers are produced in loose panicles; the pistil is composed of 
a roundish hairy germen, supporting a thick, short, smooth style, crowned 
with three sessile stigmas, one of which is usually larger than the rest; the 
fruit is a striated berry, containing one seed. Fig. (a) a male flower, (6) the 
fruit, (c) an anther magnified, (d) the pistillum. 
This species of swmach is a native of North América, and very frequent in 
Carolina ; it is also a common tree, in fields and hedges, from Canada to 
Georgia, flowering in June and July. Botanists have not agreed if this be 
a distinct species from the Rhus radicans of Linneus: Michaux and Parsh, | 
who had extensive opportunities for observation, consider the Tosicoden- 
dron and radicans as mere local varieties: on the other hand, Nuttall and 
Elliott agree in opinion with Linnzus, who founds his specific distinction 
on the leaves of the latter being naked and entire, while they are pubescent 
and angular in the former. Professor Bigelow, who had opportunities of 
seeing the plants in every stage, states that, “ among the plants which grow 
abundantly round Boston, I have frequently observed individual shoots, 
from the same stock, having the characters of both varieties. I have also 
observed that young plants of Rhus radicans frequently do not put-out 
rooting fibres until they are several years old; and that they seem, in this 
respect, to be considerably influenced by the contiguity of supporting 
objects. The radicans is indeed said to be a smaller shrub, with smooth 
and slender shoots, roots entire, leaflets smaller, and standing upon shorter 
and more slender footstalks: but, as far as we can judge from the specimens 
in our own Herbarium, from various parts of North America, there is no 
specific distinction between the two. 
Sensible and Chemical Properties, 8c. The leaves of this plant have no 
_ odour, their taste is mawkish, and slightly acrid; they give out their virtues 
completely to water and proof spirit, but only partially to alcohol: the 
watery infusion reddens litmus paper, and yields a precipitate with gelatine : 
sulphate of iron produces a black precipitate, and nitrate of silver a brown. 
We are told by Professor Bigelow that “if a leaf or stem of this plant be 
