ARBORETUM NOTES. 95 
TERE BIN PHAGE E. 
it has changed, has a very fine effect. I think 
that Loudon has mistaken the meaning of the 
specific name of this Sumach. I imagine that 
Linneus did not mean any allusion to typhus 
fever, but intended to compare the thick, club- 
like, woolly masses of fruit to the spikes of the 
Typha. 1 have since found Linnzus’ own ex- 
planation of -the name, in the Amenitates 
Academica, vol. 4, dissert. 63, p.311; where he says 
that this species differs from Rhus glabrum,— 
‘‘Ramis hirtis uti typhi cervini,” &c. I do not 
indeed find typhus in the dictionaries, but it is 
quite evident that Linnaeus here means the young 
horns of deer while covered with their downy 
skin. 
There is much uncertainty as to the gender 
of the name Rhus, whether it should be feminine 
or neuter. In the above-quoted dissertation in 
the Amenitates Academice (63), Linneus makes 
the name of this species typhinwm; yet in the 
very same article, he mentions Rhus _ coriaria 
and Khus glabra. The generality of modern 
authors, I think, make the name feminine. It 
seems to be clear that Rhus coriaria is the original 
Povs of Theophrastus and Dioscorides; and 
this name Pos, according to Liddell and Scott, 
and to Donnegan, is both masculine and feminine. 
50 there is no authority, at any rate, for the 
neuter use of the name. 
Rhus 
typhina 
