ANACARDIACEZ. 
SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 
COTINUS AMERICANUS. 
Chittam Wood. 
Panic es slender, long-branched, few-flowered. Leaves obovate or oval, puberulous 
on the lower surface. 
Cotinus Americanus, Nuttall, Sylva, iii. 1, t. 81. — Sar- 
gent, Garden and Forest, iv. 340. 
Rhus cotinoides, Nuttall in herb. — Cooper, Smithsonian 
Rhus Cotinus (?), Torrey & Gray, Fl. N. Am. i. 216. 
C. Coggygria, Engler, De Candolle Monogr. Phaner. iv. 
350 (in part). 
Rep. 1858, 250. — Chapman, Fl. 70. — Coulter, Contrib. 
U. S. Nat. Herb. ii. 67 (Man. Pl. W. Texas). 
A small tree, twenty-five to thirty-five feet in height, with a straight trunk occasionally twelve or 
fourteen inches in diameter, usually dividing, twelve or fourteen feet from the ground, into several erect 
The bark of the trunk 
is an eighth of an inch thick and is light gray and furrowed, the surface breaking into thin oblong 
stems which separate into wide-spreading, often slightly pendulous branches. 
scales. The inner bark is white, but on its exposure to the air soon turns orange, and when cut exudes 
a resinous sap with a strong disagreeable odor. The young shoots are purple at first, but soon become 
green; during the first winter they are bright red-brown and are covered with small white lenticular 
spots and marked by large prominent leaf-scars ; in their second year the bark of the branches is dark 
orange-colored. The winter-buds are acuminate and an eighth of an inch long, and are covered with 
thin dark red-brown scales. The leaves are oval or obovate, rounded or sometimes slightly emarginate 
at the apex, and gradually contracted at the base; they are thin and membranaceous, entire, with 
slightly wavy and revolute margins, four to six inches long and two to three inches broad, and are 
borne on stout petioles varying from a half to three quarters of an inch in length. The leaves are ight 
purple when they unfold and are then covered on the lower surface with fine silky white hairs; they 
soon turn bright green, and at maturity are dark green above and pale on the lower surface, which is 
puberulous along the broad midribs and primary veins. The flowers, which appear late in April or 
early in May, are produced in puberulous terminal panicles five or six inches long and two and a half 
to three inches broad, the males and females on different individuals. The bracts are scarious, half an 
inch long, and early deciduous. The flower-bearing pedicels are from a half to three quarters of an 
inch in length and are usually collected three or four together in loose umbels near the ends of the 
principal branches of the panicles. The ripe fruit, which is produced very sparingly, is rather more 
than an eighth of an inch long, and is borne on stalks which vary in length from two to three inches. 
The sterile pedicels are from one and a half to two inches long at maturity, and are covered with short, 
not very abundant, and rather inconspicuous pale purple or brown hairs. 
Cotinus Americanus was discovered by Thomas Nuttall in 1819 on the banks of Grand River, 
a tributary of the Arkansas, within the present limits of the Indian Territory ;* twenty-three years 
later it was found by Mr. 8. B. Buckley’? in Alabama, where it grows in a few localities north of 
southwestern regions of the Apalachian-mountain system, where 
In 1866 Buckley was 
appointed state geologist of Texas, and made his home in Austin, 
In Texas he 
14 Journal of Travels into the Arkansas Territory during the 
Year 1819, 177. 
2 Samuel Botsford Buckley (1809-1884) was a native of Yates 
County, New York, and was educated at Wesleyan University, 
he discovered many interesting plants. 
where he resided during the remainder of his life. 
Middletown, Connecticut, where he was graduated in 1836. He 
established himself as a teacher first in Illinois and then in 
Alabama, and was one of the earliest naturalists to explore the 
continued his botanical studies and found many undescribed plants. 
The botanical papers which contained the results of these investi- 
gations were prepared without access to a well-equipped library, 
