ANACARDIACES. SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 13 
RHUS METOPIUM. 
Poison Wood. Hog Gum. 
FLOWERS diccious by abortion. Drupe obovate, glabrous; stone chartaceous. 
Leaves unequally pinnate; leaflets glabrous, entire. 
Rhus Metopium, Linnzus, Amen. v. 395. — Poiret, Lam. Fl. Brit. W. Ind. 175.— Chapman, F7. 69. — Sargent, 
Dict. vii. 507. — Titford, Hort. Bot. Am. 51. — Descour- Forest Trees N. Am. 10th Census U. S. ix. 54. 
tilz, Fl. Med. Antil. ii. 49, t. 79. — Roemer & Schultes, R. Oxymetopium, Grisebach, Cat. Pl. Cub. 67. 
Syst. vi. 648. — De Candolle, Prodr. ii. 67. — Don, Gen. Metopium Linnzi, Engler, De Candolle Monogr. Phaner. 
Syst. ii. 69.— Spach, Hist. Vég. ii. 211.— Macfadyen, iv. 367. 
Fl. Jam. 225. — Dietrich, Syn. ii. 1002. — Nuttall, Sylva, Metopium Linnzi, var. Oxymetopium, Engler, De Can- 
ii. 121, t. 80. — Richard, Fl. Cub. ii. 157. — Grisebach, dolle Monogr. Phaner. iv. 367. 
A tree, with exceedingly acrid poisonous juices, frequently thirty-five to forty feet in height, with a 
short trunk sometimes two feet in diameter, and stout spreading often pendulous branches forming a low 
broad top. The bark of the trunk is an eighth of an inch thick, and separates into large thin plate-like 
scales displaying the bright orange-color of the inner bark ; it is light reddish brown tinged with orange 
and often marked with dark spots caused by the exuding of the resinous gum with which this tree 
abounds. The branchlets are thick and are reddish brown, with prominent leaf-scars and numerous 
orange-colored lenticular excrescences. The winter-buds are large and covered with thick acuminate 
scales truncate at the apex and furnished on the margin with rufous hairs. The leaves, which are 
clustered near the ends of the branches, are nine to ten inches long, and are borne on stout petioles with 
swollen and enlarged bases; they are composed of two or three pairs and a terminal leaflet, or are often 
three-foliate, and unfold in March, remaining on the branches until the appearance of the new growth 
the following year. The leaflets are ovate, broadly rounded or usually contracted towards the apex, 
which is then acute or sometimes slightly emarginate, and rounded or sometimes cordate or wedge-shaped 
at the base. They are thick, smooth, and lustrous, with thickened slightly revolute margins, prominent 
midribs, primary veins spreading at right angles, and many reticulating veinlets ; they are three or four 
inches long and two or three inches broad, and are borne on stout petiolules half an inch or an inch in 
length, that of the terminal leaflet being sometimes twice as long as the others. The male and female 
flowers are produced on separate trees in slender erect axillary clusters aggregated at the ends of the 
branches and as long as the leaves or rather longer. The stem of the inflorescence is enlarged at the 
base, and, like its branches, is covered with small orange-colored lenticular spots. The bracts and 
bractlets are acute, minute, and deciduous. The pedicels are stout, an eighth of an inch thick, and as 
long as the obtuse flower-buds. The lobes of the calyx are semiorbicular, with membranaceous margins, 
and are half the length of the ovate obtuse yellow-green petals, which are marked on the inner surface 
with dark longitudinal lines. The stamens are rather shorter than the petals in the sterile flower, and 
are minute and rudimentary in the fertile flower. The ovary, which in the sterile flower is reduced to 
a small point, is subglobose with a short style and a large three-lobed stigma. The fruit ripens in 
November and December, and hangs in long graceful clusters; it is obovoid, orange-colored, glabrous 
and rather lustrous, three quarters of an inch in length, and crowned with the remnants of the style. 
The outer covering, which is rather thick and resinous, incloses a thin crustaceous stone and a nearly 
quadrangular thin seed with a broad funicle covering its margin and a smooth dark brown opaque 
testa.’ 
1 The juices of Rhus Metopium, and even its exhalations at the people, producing the same symptoms as those caused by Rhus 
time the trees are in flower, are exceedingly poisonous to most Tozicodendron. 
