ANACARDIACES. SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. rf 
RHUS. 
FLowers regular, polygamo-diccious, polygamo-monecious or dicecious by abortion ; 
calyx 5-lobed, the lobes imbricated in estivation; petals 5, imbricated in estivation ; 
ovary 1-celled, ovoid or globular; ovules solitary, suspended. Fruit, a small nut-like 
drupe. 
Rhus, Linneus, Gen. 84. — Adanson, Fam. Pl. ii. 342.— Metopium, Browne, Nat. Hist. Jam. 177. 
A. L. de Jussieu, Gen. 369 (excl. Cotinus).— Endlicher, Vernix, Adanson, Fam. Pl. ii. 342. 
Gen. 1130 (excl. Cotinus).— Meisner, Gen. 74 (excl. Pocophorum, Necker, Elem. Bot. ii. 226. 
Cotinus). — Gray, Gen. Ill. ii. 157 (excl. Cotinus).— Lobadium, Rafinesque, Jour. Phys. lxxxix. 98. 
Bentham & Hooker, Gen. i. 418 (excl. Cotinus, Zi- Turpinia, Rafinesque, V. Y. Med. Rep. hex. 2, v. 352. 
threa, and Anaphrenium).— Marchand, Rev. Anacard. Schmalzia, Desvaux, Jour. Bot. iii. 229. 
179 (excl. Cotinus and Anaphrenium).— Baillon, Hist. Styphonia, Nuttall; Torrey & Gray, 77. N. Am. i. 220. 
Pl. v. 321 (excl. Cotinus, Lithrea, and Anaphrenium). Melanococca, Blume, Mus. Lugd. Bat. i. 236. 
Trees or shrubs, sometimes climbing by rootlets, with stout terete pithy branchlets, fleshy roots, and 
resinous or viscid milky, sometimes caustic, juice. Leaves alternate, pinnate, pinnately trifoliate or rarely 
simple, destitute of stipules. Flowers minute, white or greenish white, in more or less compound axillary 
or terminal panicles, the males and females usually produced on separate plants. Calyx five-lobed, the 
lobes united at the base only, generally persistent. Disk fleshy, surrounding the base of the free ovary, 
coherent with the base of the calyx, annular or five-lobed. Petals five, longer than and alternate with 
the divisions of the calyx, inserted under the margin of the disk opposite its lobes, deciduous. Stamens 
five, inserted on the margin of the disk, alternate with the petals; filaments subulate ; anthers oblong, 
attached on the back, introrse, two-celled, the cells opening longitudinally ; rudimentary or abortive in 
the pistillate flower. Ovary one-celled, sessile, ovoid or subglobose; rudimentary in the staminate 
flower ; styles three, terminal, free or slightly connate at the base, rising from the centre of the ovary 
and crowned with the obtuse or capitate stigmas; ovule solitary, anatropous, suspended from the 
incurved apex of a slender funiculus rising from the base of the cell; the micropyle superior. Fruit 
usually globose, rarely compressed or ovoid, smooth or covered with hairs; sarcocarp thin and dry, 
more or less resinous ; endocarp crustaceous or bony. Seed ovoid or reniform, amphitropous, commonly 
transverse, filling the cavity of the fruit, destitute of albumen; testa thin, membranaceous. Embryo 
filling the seed; cotyledons flat, foliaceous, generally transverse; radicle long, uncinate, laterally 
accumbent. 
Rhus is widely distributed in the extratropical regions of the northern and southern hemispheres, 
but is rare within the tropics. More than a hundred species are distinguished ;' they abound in 
southern Africa,? North America, and eastern and southern Asia,’ and are found in tropical and. 
subtropical America* and the Andes,’ in east tropical Africa,® in the Indian Archipelago,’ the Fejee ® 
and Hawaiian Islands, and in Australia where one species is known. ‘Traces of Rhus are rare and 
1 Engler, De Candolle Monogr. Phaner. iv. 371. 6 Ruiz & Pavon, Fl. Peruv. iii. 29, t. 252. — Engler, l. c. 400. 
2 Harvey & Sonder, Fl. Cap. i. 504. 6 Richard, Fl. Abyss. i. 143.— Oliver, Fl. Trop. Afr. i. 436. — 
8 Franchet & Savatier, Enum. Pl. Jap. i. 92.— Hemsley, Jour. Engler, J. c. 441. 
Linn. Soe. xxiii. 146. — Hooker f. Fl. Brit. Ind. ii. 9. 7 Blume, Bydr. Fl. Ned. Ind. 1164. — Miquel, Fl. Ind. Bat. i. 
4 Humboldt, Bonpland & Kunth, Nov. Gen. et Spec. vii. 8, t. pt. ii. 621. — Engler, J. v. 450. 
602-604. — Grisebach, Fl. Brit. W. Ind. 175. — Triana & Planchon, 8 Gray, Bot. Wilkes Explor. Exped. 367, t. 44. 
Ann. Sci. Nat. ser. 5, xiv. 288.—Hemsley, Bot. Biol. Am. Cent. 9 Hillebrand, Fl. Haw. Is. 89. 
i. 217. 10 Bentham, Fil. Austral. i. 488. 
