FLOWERING SHRUBS. 145- 



The foliage of the Sumac is very graceful and highly ornamental to 

 the landscape in the fall of the year, when its long, drooping, pinnate 

 leaves, from nineteen to thirty-one foliate, assume the most glowing tints 

 of orange, scarlet and crimson. The flowers are of two kinds or dice- 

 cious, in close, conical, upright heads, terminating the branches. The 

 fruit, small round berries, beset with soft crimson acid hairs, which 

 remain persistent on the receptacle, around which they cluster and give 

 to the tree a strikingly ornamental appearance. These beautiful crimson 

 velvet-like cones continue all through the cold wintry weather, forming 

 a continual feast for the late-going and early coming birds. A bountiful 

 provision for those pensioners on God's providence who " neither sow 

 nor reap, and yet our Heavenly Father feedeth them." 



The term Stag-horn, I imagine to be taken, not only from the 

 extended branches, but from the fine brown, downy, covering that 

 clothes the branchlets and stems of the leaves and flower-bearing shoots, 

 resembling the velvety down on the young horns of deer when they first 

 sprout forth. 



The wood of the Stag-horn Sumac is of a fine yellow colour, and 

 the chips and bark are used as dye-woods. The bark is used in tanning 

 and the root as a powerful astringent and tonic in intermittent fever, 

 while the acid fruit can be converted into a strong vinegar and is so 

 used, I am told, in New England. I have, however, never seen the 

 fruit of the Sumac made use of in this country for any household purpose. 



Smooth Dwarf Sumac — R. glaba, (L.) 



This is also widely diffused through Canada. It is a pretty shrub 

 but troublesome, from sending up so many shoots ; it rises from a very 

 low size to ten and twelve feet high. It is very similar to the last, but 

 the foliage is narrower, glaucous-white underneath, the eleven to thirty- 

 one sharply toothed and pointed leaflets are veiy smooth on the 

 surface and taking brilliant orange and scarlet colours before fading. 

 The stem is also smooth and glaucous, like the leaves. There is another 

 dwarf species, R. copallina, (L.) found in rocky soil, the chief character- 

 istic of which consists in the winged margin of the leaf-stalks ; it is a 

 lower and smaller shrub than R. glabra. 



Black Alder — • Winter-berry — Ilex verticillaia, (Gray.) 



This red-berried shrub belongs to the Holly family ; but we have 

 in Canada no tree which takes the place of the British Hulme or Holly 

 Tree, with its glossy, prickly-armed, evergreen leaves, green bark, and 

 brilliant garniture of scarlet berries. 



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