382 ANACARDIACE^. Rhus. 



R. cotinoides, Nutt. (American Smoke-tree, Chittam-wood.) Tree 25 to 40 feet 

 high, with soft and light orange-colored wood, glabrous or nearly so : leaves thin and mem- 

 branaceous, oval, with mostly acute or narrowed base, 3 to 6 inches long : flowers (greenish 

 yellow) and fruit as in R. Cutinus. — Nutt. in Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 217, as synonym ; Chapm. 

 Fl. 70; C. Mohr, Proc. Acad. Philad. 1881, 217 ; Sargent, U. S. lOth Census, ix. 52. R. Co- 

 </hus, Nutt. Trav. Arkansas, 177. R. Cothius? Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 216.1 Cotinus Ameri- 

 canus, Nutt. Sylv. iii. 1, t. 81.2 — Wooded calcareous banks, on Grand River, a tributary of 

 the Arkansas (in the Indian Territory), Nuttall, also N. Alabama,^ in the mountains, 

 Buckley, Neiuus, Mohr ; rare and local. 



§ 2. Metopium. Drupe symmetrical, glabrous and with thin chartaceous and 



smooth putamen ; style very short and undivided; stigma 3-lobed : flowers in 



ample loose panicles-, perfect or barely polygamous : leaves pinnate. — Metopium, 



P. Br. Jam. 177, t. 13, f. 3 ; Engler, 1. c. 367, t. 13, f. 32-38. 



R. Metopium, L. (Jamaica Sumach, Poison-wood, but hardly poisonous.) Low tree, 

 glabrous : leaves usually 5-foliolate ; leaflets long-petiolulate, ovate, with rounded or sub- 

 cordate base, from obtuse or emarginate to abruptly acuminate, entire (or undulate-mar- 

 gined), shining above, 2 to 4 inches long: fruit obovoid or oblong, scarlet when ripe. — 

 Syst. Nat. ed. 10, 964, Amcen. Acad. v. 395, & Spec. ed. 2, i. 381 (P. Br. 1. c, Sloane, Jam. 

 ii.t. 199, f. 3) ; Descourt. Fl. Ant. ii. t. 79 ; Chapm. Fl. 69.* Metopium LinncBi, Engler, 1. c. 

 — S. Florida along the coast and on the keys. (W. Ind.) 



§ 3. Rhus proper. Drupe symmetrical or nearly so, with crustaceous or bony 



putamen ; short styles and stigmas distinct or partly united : flowers mostly 



polygamous, in some dioecious : leaves (turning red in autumn) and inflorescence 



various. 



* Toxicodendron. Drupes dun-colored or whitish, the thin and almost always glabrous 

 epicarp at length falling away from the granular-waxy mesocarp, this traversed by copious 

 longitudinal or partly reticulating fibres in one or two series and more persisting around 

 the dull and somewhat rugose or undulate stone (putamen) : leaves deciduous, pinnately 

 3-several-foliolate : flowers in axillary open panicles : whole plants glabrous or glabrate, 

 occasionally pubescent, the juice and effluvium acrid-poisonous ; fl. summer. — Toxico- 

 dendron, Tourn. Inst. 610; Mill. Diet. ed. 8. Rhus § Toxicodendron, Gray, Man. eds. 2-5; 

 DC, and Engler, in part. (R. trichocarpa, Miq., is of this section, notwithstanding the 

 hirtillous drupe : a Japanese form of R. Toxicodendron has the same anomaly in a less 

 degree.) 



•i— Leaves trifoliolate : panicles short : stems in same species sometimes erect but low, 

 sometimes climbing (even to the tops of trees) by multitudinous rootlets (never " volu- 

 ble "). — Poison Vines. 

 R. Toxicodendron, L. (Poison Ivy, Poison Oak.) Glabrous, or more commonly with 

 young foliage and often the adult more or less pubescent, or villous-bearded on midrib and 

 veins beneath : leaflets variously ovate, all or some acuminate (2 to 5 inches long), entire or 

 augulate-dentate or sinuate or 3-5-lobed, lateral ones .short-petiolulate : panicles almost 

 always shorter than the petioles : drupes 2 or 3 lines in diameter ; waxy mesocarp multi- 

 costate when dry, the outer circle of fibres being much impressed. — Michx. Fl. i. 183; 

 Pursh, Fl. i. 205 ; Sims, Bot. Mag. t. 1806 ("a, vuUjare ") ; Nouv. Duham. ii. t. 48 ; Torr. & 

 Gray, Fl. i. 218; Emerson, Trees & Shrubs Mass. ed. 2, ii. 577, with plate ; Engler, 1. c. 393, 

 excl. var. R. Toxicodendron, & R. radicans, L. Spec. i. 266, & ed. 2, i. 381 (Cornuti, Canad. 

 f. 97 ; Dill. Elth. t. 291), & various authors.^ In general the high climbing plants have the 



1 Add syn. Ji. Americanus, Slid worth, Bull. Torr. Club, xix. 80. 



2 Add Sargent, Silv. iii. 3, t. 98, 99. C. cotinoides, Rritton, Mem. Torr. Club, v. 216. 



3 Also mountains of E. Tennessee, and near Medina River, W.Texas, Reverchon, ace. to Sargent, 1. c. 



* Add Sargent. Silv. iii. 13, t. 100, 101. 



6 A noteworthy form from the Kej-s of Florida (where coll. in fruit hy Blodgett) has been called 

 R. Blodgettii by Kearney, Bull. Torr. Club, xxi. 486. It differs in its somewhat smaller drupes and 



