8 SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 
ANACARDIACE. 
faintly characterized in the records of the Tertiary Arctic flora; they abound, however, in that of 
Europe, especially from the late Eocene to the end of the Miocene period. 
In North America the 
genus is widely and generally distributed from Canada to southern Mexico, and from the shores of 
the Atlantic to those of the Pacific Ocean, with sixteen or seventeen species within the territory of 
the United States. Five species growing north of Mexico reach the size and attain the habit of small 
trees ; the others are large or small shrubs. 
Many species of Rhus possess useful properties, and some of them are of commercial importance. 
The most valuable is the Lacquer-tree of China and Japan, Rhus vernicifera? 
The acrid milky 
poisonous juice* of this species furnishes the black varnish used by the Japanese in the manufacture 
of lacquer;* and a wax is obtained from the fruit and from that of Rhus succedanea,® a native of 
1 Saporta, Origine Palcontologique des Arbres, 298. 
2 De Candolle, Prodr. ii. 68. — Franchet & Savatier, Enum. Pl. 
Jap. i. 93.— Engler, De Candolle Monogr. Phaner. iv. 398.— 
Hemsley, Jour. Linn. Soc. xxiii. 148. 
R. Verniz, Thunberg, Fl. Jap. 121 (not Linneus). 
8 Arbor verniciferd legitima, folio pinnato Juglandis, fructu racemoso 
ciceris facie, Kaempfer, Amen. 791, t. Kaempfer alludes to the 
poisonous properties of the juices of this plant in the following 
passage : “‘ Utrinque Japonica & Siamensis Vernix venenatum ex- 
spirat halitum, ex quo labia tumescunt, & caput dolet ; unde in 
794. 
4 The manufacture of lacquer-ware has been practiced in Japan 
deliniendo artifices strophiolo os & nares obligant.” 
for more than two thousand years. The principal ingredient used 
is the sap of the Lacquer-tree, which is cultivated with more or less 
care all over the main island of Nippon and is grown in several 
districts of the islands of Kiushiu and Shikoku, although a temper- 
ate climate appears to suit it best, as it reaches its greatest per- 
It is cultivated 
principally in northern Hondo, between latitude 37° and 39°; but 
fection on the main island north of latitude 36°. 
extensive plantations occur also in the valley of the Tadami-gawa 
and in northern Echigo. Here villages are embowered in groves 
of Lacquer-trees, which grow up with straight trunks and while 
young produce handsome heads of large pinnate leaves, said by 
Rein to exceed those of all other species of Rhus in size and 
beauty. Old trees produce comparatively few branches, and their 
foliage is light and thin. 
The Lacquer-tree is propagated from seed and by cuttings. The 
fruit is gathered in October, and the outer covering of the stones 
is at once removed by pounding them in mortars. They are then 
washed and put into straw sacks, which are plunged in liquid ma- 
nure or in water during the winter. In the early spring, having 
been first exposed to the sun for five or six days, they are sown in 
carefully prepared seed-beds, and covered with a thin layer of soil. 
The seedling plants reach a height of ten or twelve inches during 
’ the first summer, and the following spring are transplanted six feet 
apart and allowed to grow undisturbed. In ten years they attain 
an average height of nine or ten feet, with trunks two or three 
inches in diameter. Plants raised from root-cuttings grow rather 
more rapidly than seedlings, although the latter make hardier 
and longer-lived trees. The process is simple and demands little 
labor or skill. Pieces of the root about half an inch thick are taken 
from vigorous young trees and are cut into six-inch lengths ; these 
are set in beds in a slanting position, about an inch only being left 
above the surface of the soil. These cuttings, which are usually 
planted in March, produce shoots nearly two feet long during the 
first season, and the following spring are transplanted in the same 
manner as the seedlings. Once planted, the trees receive little 
subsequent care, although they repay the cost of occasional manur- 
ing by a more luxuriant growth. The increased demand for cereals 
and other farm produce which has sprung up in Japan of late years 
has restricted the planting of the Lacquer-tree to hilly and waste 
grounds, and old plantations bordering arable fields are being 
destroyed to make room for more valuable crops. 
The age at which the trees are tapped varies in different prov- 
inces. Sometimes they are tapped when only four years old, al- 
though nearly all cultivated trees are allowed to grow for at least 
ten years before the sap is drawn from them, when they yield from 
two to three ounces each. Very old trees are supposed to produce 
the best and strongest lacquer, and the sap from such trees is 
therefore collected separately and brings a high price. 
The operation of drawing the sap from the trees lasts from June 
until November. A number of short horizontal incisions, one above 
the other and about six inches apart, are made in the trunk and 
main branches. From these the sap is collected several times a 
day with a wooden tool made for the purpose, while every three 
or four days a sharp knife-blade is run under the bark, along the 
edges of the cuts, to insure a free flow. Finally all the branches 
are cut off the tree, and the larger ones are tapped again to extract 
any sap that may still remain in them, while the small ones which 
have not been tapped are tied in bundles and steeped in water for 
several days, when they yield a small amount of sap. 
This operation kills the tree in one season. By reducing the 
number of incisions it is sometimes allowed to live through another 
season ; but the sap then obtained is of inferior quality and trees 
are rarely worked more than one year. Usually contractors purchase 
the trees by the thousand, and the sap is extracted as rapidly and 
as thoroughly as possible by professional tappers. As soon as it is 
drawn it is poured into large wooden tubs or vats, and is stirred 
in the sun with large wooden spatulas until all excess of water is 
evaporated. In some cases it undergoes careful straining ; in oth- 
ers it is mixed with sulphate of iron, oxide of iron, or with indigo. 
A skillful workman is expected to work on an average a thousand 
trees in a season ; and some idea of the extent of the industry may 
be obtained from the fact that the Province of Echizen sends out 
fifteen hundred tappers every year to the different lacquer districts 
of the Empire. From 30,000 to 35,000 tubs of lacquer varnish, 
each of four gallons capacity, are annually produced in the country. 
(See J. J. Quin, Trans. Asiatic Soc. Jap. ix. pt. i.1; British Consu- 
lar Reports, 1882. — Audsley, Ornamental Arts of Japan, i. sec. 4, 
3.— Louis Gonse, L’Art Japonais, 246. —Maeda, La Revue Scien- 
tifique, ser. 2, xiv. 1178. — Reed, Japan, its History, Traditions, and 
Religions, ii. 31. — Rein, Japan nach Reisen und Studien im Auftrage 
der Kéniglich Preussischen Regierung, ii. 186. — Hosie, Three Years 
in Western China, 164.) 
> The vegetable-wax of Japan is obtained from the thick white 
coating of the seeds of Rhus vernicifera and of Rhus succedanea. 
