u 



NAT. ORDER. DVM03M. 



is spread underncuth it, which causes it to reflect like a mirror, and 

 for this pui'pose recourse is frequently had to the fine sludge, which 

 is got in the trough under the grindstone, or to ground charcoal ; oc- 

 casionally a red substance is mixed with the varnish, and sometimes 

 leaf-gold ground very fine. This varnish hardens very much, but 

 will not endure any blows, cracking and flying almost like glass, 

 though it can stand boiling water without any damtige. With this 

 the Japanese varnish over the posts of their doors, and most articles 

 of household furniture, which are made of wood. It far exceeds the 

 Chinese and Siamese varnish, and the best is collected about the 

 town of Jassino. It is cleared from impurities by wringing it through 

 very fine paper ; then about a hundi-edth part of an oil called toi, 

 which is expressed from the fruit of Bignonia tomentosa is added to it, 

 and being put into wooden vessels, either alone or mixed with native 

 cmnabar, or some black substance, it is sold all over Japan. The 

 expressed oil of the seeds sei-ves for candles. The tree is said to be 

 erpially poisonous with the Hhus venenata, or American poison-tree, 

 in some parts called Swamp Sumach. It is a native of Japan. 



jRIius venenata. Poison Sumach, Poison-wood, Swamp Sumach 

 Dog-wood, &c. This tree rises from fifteen to twenty-five feet m height ; 

 leaves with six or seven pairs of smoothish deciduous leaflets ; pe- 

 tioles naked ; leaflets ovate-lanceolate, acuminated, quite e«itire, net- 

 ted with vems beneath ; flowers dioecious, green ; fruit white, smooth, 

 containing a fiu-rowed nut. The milky juice of this tree scams linen 

 a dark-brown. The whole slirub is m a liigh degree poisonc us, and 

 the poison is communicated by toucliing or smelling any part of it 

 In forty-eight hours, inflammation appears on the skin in large 

 blotches, principally on the extremities, and on the glandulous parts 

 of the body ; soon after small pustules rise in the inflamed parts, and 

 fill with watery matter, attended with burning and itchkg. In two 

 or three days the eruptions suppurate, after which the mflammation 



