4 SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. ANACARDIACEX. 
the Tennessee River on the southern slopes of the Cumberland Mountains in the neighborhood of © 
Huntsville ;! it occurs on the Cheat Mountains in eastern Tennessee and in the valley of the Medina 
River in western Texas? In Alabama Cotinus Americanus occupies limestone terraces at elevations 
of seven hundred to nine hundred feet above the level of the sea, on the steep and rocky slopes of 
mountains covered with a heavy forest growth of Chestnut Oaks, Elms, Mocker Nuts, Black Maples, 
and Junipers, and a dense undergrowth composed of the Black Haw, the Wild Plum, the Hornbeam, 
and the fragrant Sumach. 
scattered along the sides of rocky ravines. 
It is nowhere abundant, and occurs only in small isolated groves or thickets 
The wood of Cotinus Americanus is light, soft, and rather coarse-grained, the layers of annual 
growth being marked by several rows of large open ducts; it is a bright clear rich orange-color with 
thin nearly white sapwood, and contains numerous very obscure medullary rays. 
contact with the soil, but is difficult to season and lable to check in drying. 
the absolutely dry wood is 0.6425, a cubic foot weighing 40.04 pounds. 
It is very durable in 
The specific gravity of 
It yields a clear orange- 
colored dye, and was once largely used locally for fence-posts. 
Cotinus Americanus was introduced into cultivation through the Arnold Arboretum in 1882. It 
has not proved hardy in New England, and is not known to have flowered in cultivation. 
In favorable 
situations it may be expected to grow to a larger size than the Venetian Sumach. The sterile filaments 
are shorter, less abundant, and less brightly colored, and it will probably prove a less showy and 
desirable garden plant.’ 
and brought severe and not always just criticisms upon their 
author. The last years of his life, devoted principally to farming 
and fruit-growing, were thus greatly embittered, although his 
interest in botany survived to the end. Buckleya, a remarkable San- 
talaceous genus, of which he discovered the flowers and fruit, and 
which is represented in the flora of America by a graceful shrub 
of the mountains of North Carolina, and in Japan by a second 
species peculiar to that country, fitly commemorates Buckley’s 
zealous and too little appreciated labors in the cause of science. 
1 The most accessible locality where this tree is found in Ala- 
bama is on the slopes and summit of a low hill near Bailey’s farm, 
twelve miles from Huntsville, on the road to Winchester, Tennes- 
see. (Buckley, Proc. Phil. Acad. 1881, 125.) It was also found 
by Mohr on the southern slope of Mt. Sono, east of Huntsville. 
(Proc. Phil. Acad. 1882, 217.) During the War of Secession nearly 
all the large specimens were cut down for the dye which the wood 
yields, and the tree is now much less common than formerly and 
is in danger of extermination. 
2 Cotinus Americanus was discovered in Texas on the 6th of June, 
1885, by Mr. Julien Reverchon on the steep bluffs of the narrow 
defile of the Bandera Pass over which the road from Kerrsville 
to Bandera crosses ; and also five miles west of Bandera on the 
Waresville road. Only a few shrubby individuals were found in 
these two stations. 
8 The fruiting panicles of the Venetian Sumach as it now appears 
in gardens have been greatly modified by long cultivation and by 
selection with a view to developing their showy appearance, and 
are much more conspicuous than those of the wild plant. Cultiva- 
tion and selection may be expected to produce similar changes in 
the American plant. 
