ANACARDIACES. 
southern and eastern Asia. 
SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 
9 
Chinese galls’ are produced on Rhus scimialata, a tree widely distributed 
from the Himalayas through China and J apan to the Hawaiian Islands. Rhus Coriaria? is cultivated 
in southern Europe for the tannin contained in its leaves, which, dried and pulverized, are used in 
curing leather ;* the acid and astringent fruit was employed by the ancients as a condiment, and is 
still occasionally used. The wood of many of the species is soft, coarse-grained, and highly colored ; 
others yield hard and heavy wood valued in cabinet-making and for wagons. The acrid and astringent 
berries of Rhus glabra,’ a shrubby North American species, are diuretic and refrigerant, and are 
sometimes used, in infusion, in the treatment of catarrhal troubles and in febrile diseases; and an 
infusion of the leaves and of the inner bark of the roots is employed for the same purpose and in 
dressing wounds.® 
The leaves of the so-called Poison Ivy of North America and Japan, Rhus 
Toxicodendron,’ are stimulant and narcotic and are said to have been successfully used in the treatment 
This tree is widely distributed in several forms from the Himalayas 
to Java and Japan, and is extensively grown in the milder portions 
of Japan, flourishing south of latitude 35° north, and in Kiushiu 
and some parts of Ino, forming a conspicuous feature of the land- 
scape, covering hillsides and lining the borders of fields and roads 
and the margins of dikes and canals. It is a smaller and more 
widely branching tree than Rhus vernicifera, with smaller leaves 
but larger, heavier fruit richer in fat ; it resembles an Apple-tree 
in habit, and grows to a height of fifteen or eighteen feet. As the 
Wax-tree is cultivated for its fruit alone, it is usually propagated 
from cuttings in order to secure a preponderance of female plants, 
the methods adopted for multiplying the Lacquer-tree being used. 
It increases in productiveness with age, and the ground is therefore 
generally more carefully prepared and enriched for it than for the 
Laecquer-trees, which are constantly destroyed and replanted. 
The fruit of both these trees is kidney-shaped and light yellow- 
green when ripe. The semitranslucent outer coat separates and 
falls soon after the fruit reaches maturity, leaving the greenish 
white fat of the mesocarp visible. As soon as it is gathered the 
fruit is separated from the stalks and is ground ; the meal is then 
put into hempen sacks, heated by steam, and pressed in wedge- 
shaped presses. The tallow as it flows from the press soon con- 
geals into a solid mass. This is melted in iron kettles to free it 
from impurities, and the wax as it rises is skimmed off into small 
earthenware saucers, from which it can be easily removed in cakes 
ready for the market. The wax intended for export is made 
almost entirely from the fruit of R. succedanea and undergoes a 
process of bleaching. The raw wax is melted and allowed to drop 
through woolen bags into cold water ; it is then placed in shallow 
boxes and exposed to the sun, and, being frequently sprinkled with 
water and turned, in thirty days becomes white and almost odor- 
less. Rhus-tallow, which is not a true wax, is composed of a 
mixture of several glycerides, principally of palmitic acid. The 
Japanese use it for candles and in the place of beeswax in polish- 
ing furniture. It is exported in considerable quantities, princi- 
pally to Great Britain and the United States, and is mixed with 
beeswax or used as a substitute for it. (See A. Mayer, Archiv. de 
Pharmacie, xii. 2, 1879. — Buri, Archiv. de Pharmacie, xii. 5. — 
Rein, J. c. 189.) 
1 Chinese galls are vesicular excrescences produced on the 
branches and leaf-stalks of Rhus semialata (Murray, Goett. Verh. 
1784, 27, t. 3.— De Candolle, Prodr. ii. 67. — Hooker f. Fl. Brit. 
Ind. ii. 10. — Brandis, Forest Fl. Brit. Ind. 119.— Franchet & Sava- 
tier, Enum. Pl. Jap. i. 92.— Engler, De Candolle Monogr. Phaner. 
iv. 380. — Hillebrand, Fl. Haw. Is. 89. — Hemsley, Jour. Linn. Soc. 
xxiii. 146) by the punctures of an insect believed to be Aphis Chi- 
nensis. The galls are light and hollow and vary in length from 
one to two and a half inches ; they contain about seventy per cent. 
of tannic acid, which is regarded identical with that obtained from 
oak galls. Chinese galls appear to have been first imported into 
Europe early in the eighteenth century, when they were known 
as “Oreilles des Indes” (Geoffrey, Afém. Acad. Royale des Sci- 
ences, 1724, 324), but they soon disappeared from commerce, and 
it is only in recent years that they have formed a regular article 
of trade, being imported from both China and Japan into Europe, 
where they are used, principally in Germany, in the manufacture 
of tannic and gallic acids. (Fliickiger & Hanbury, Pharmacographia, 
538.) 
2 Linneus, Spec. 265.— De Candolle, Prodr. ii. 67. — Sibthorp, 
Fil. Gree. iii. 84, t. 290.— Ledebour, Fil. Ross. i. 509. — Boissier, 
Fil. Orient. ii. 4. — Engler, De Candolle Monogr. Phaner. iv. 381. 
8 Rhus Coriaria, which is a small shrubby tree, grows naturally 
on dry rocky slopes and on gravelly sterile plains, and is widely 
distributed through the regions bordering the Mediterranean and 
the Black Sea, extending into the Caucasus, to the shores of the 
Caspian and to northern Persia, and to Madeira and the Canary 
Islauds. 
The sumach of commerce, used in curing the best qualities of 
leather, consists of the dried and powdered leaves of this plant, 
which has long been cultivated on a large scale in southern Europe, 
particularly in Italy, Spain, and Portugal. Dry calcareous soil 
from which the water drains rapidly produces the most valuable 
sumach. The plants are propagated by suckers, which are set in 
December and January and yield a harvest of leaves the first year. 
They are carefully cultivated and are severely pruned at the begin- 
ning of winter to encourage the production of vigorous shoots and 
a large crop of leaves. A plantation is usually profitable for twelve 
or fifteen years, and is then dug up and renewed. The leaves are 
gathered in June, and are threshed and ground into fine powder, 
in which form sumach appears in commerce. It is bright olive- 
green and contains from twenty-five to thirty per cent. of tannic 
acid identical with that found in Oak galls. (For a detailed 
account of the method of cultivating Rhus Coriaria in Sicily, see 
a paper by Professor Inzenga in the Annali di Agricultura Sicili- 
ana, 1852, reproduced in the Trans. Bot. Soc. Edinburgh, ix. 341. 
See also U. S. Consular Reports, No. 42, June, 1884, 27. — Naudin, 
Manuel de l’ Acclimateur, 462.) 
4 A. de Candolle, L’ Origine des Plantes Cultivées, 106. 
5 Linneus, Spec. 265.— Engler, De Candolle Monogr. Phaner. 
iv. 376. — Watson & Coulter, Gray’s Aan. ed. 6, 119. 
§ Stillé & Maisch, Nat. Dispens. ed. 2, 1230.— U. S. Dispens. 
ed. 14, 772. — Parke, Davis & Co., Organic Mat. Med. 174. 
7 Linneus, Spec. 266. — Engler, 1. c. 393. — Watson & Coulter, 
l. c. 
