ANACARDIACEZ. 
lower surface. 
SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 15 
RHUS TYPHINA. 
Staghorn Sumach. 
BRancHES and leaf-stalks densely velvety-hairy. Leaflets 11 to 31, pale on the 
Rhus typhina, Linneus, Amen. iv. 311.— Miller, Dict. 
ed. 8, No. 2. — Medicus, Bot. Beob. 1782, 228. — Wan- 
genheim, Nordam.. Holz. 95.— Marshall, Arbust. Am. 
129. — Walter, Fl. Car. 255. — Ehrhart, Beitr. vi. 89. — 
Castiglioni, Viag. negli Stati Uniti, ii. 8355. — Moench, 
Meth. 72. — Willdenow, Spec. i. 1478; Enum. 323. — 
Schoellenbach, Abbild. Baume, ii. 77, t. 46. — Schkuhr, 
Handb. i. 239. — Michaux, Fl. Bor-Am. i. 182. — Nou- 
veau Duhamel, ii. 164, t. 47. — Persoon, Syn. i. 324, — 
Desfontaines, Hist. Arb. ii. 325.— Poiret, Lam. Dict. 
vii. 503. — Pursh, Fl. Am. Sept. i. 204. — Bigelow, Fi. 
Boston. 72. — Nuttall, Gen. i. 203. — Roemer & Schultes, 
Syst. vi. 643. — Hayne, Dendr. Fl. 33. — Elliott, Sk. i. 
360. — Torrey, Fl. N. Y. i. 128. — De Candolle, Prodr. 
ii. 67. — Sprengel, Syst. i. 936. — Watson, Dendr. Brit. 
Fruit covered with long hairs. 
i. t. 17, 18. — Hooker, Fl. Bor.-Am. i. 126. — Don, Gen. 
Syst. ii. 70.— Spach, Hist. Vég. ii. 212. — Bennett, Pl. 
Jav. Rar. 80. — Torrey & Gray, Fl. N. Am. i. 217, 680. — 
Dietrich, Syn. ii. 1002. — Emerson, Zrees Mass. ed. 2, 
ii. 571, t.— Darlington, Fl. Cestr. ed. 3, 43. — Chap- 
man, £7. 69. — Curtis, Rep. Geolog. Surv. N. Car. 1860, 
iii. 93. — Koch, Dendr. i. 576. — Ridgway, Proc. U. S. 
Nat. Mus. 1882, 63.— Engler, De Candolle Monogr. 
Phaner. iv. 377. — Sargent, Forest Trees N. Am. 10th 
Census U. S. ix. 52.— Watson & Coulter, Gray’s Man. 
ed. 6, 119. 
. typhina, var. arborescens, Willdenow, Enum. 323. — 
De Candolle, Prodr. ii. 67. 
. typhina, var. frutescens, Willdenow, Hnum. 323. — 
De Candolle, Prodr. ii. 67. 
A tree, occasionally thirty-five or forty feet in height, with copious milky white viscid juice turning 
black on exposure, a slender and often slightly reclining trunk twelve or fourteen inches in diameter, 
and stout, upright, often contorted branches which form a low flat head; or more frequently a tall 
shrub, spreading by underground shoots into broad thickets. The bark of the trunk is dark brown and 
is smooth, or occasionally separates into small square scales. The branchlets are thick and are coated 
with long soft hairs which are pink when they appear in early spring, later turn bright green and 
then brown, and are short and dark-colored in the second season. The branchlets, which do not 
become glabrous until after their third or fourth year, in their second season are marked with large 
leaf-scars and with small orange-colored lenticels which enlarge vertically with the expansion of the 
bark and do not disappear for several years. 
pale brown tomentum ; the terminal bud is obtuse, with almost triangular scales, and is nearly twice the 
size of the globular axillary buds. The leaves are sixteen to twenty-four inches long and have stout 
stalks usually red on the upper side ; these are covered with soft pale hairs, and, enlarged at the base, 
surround and inclose the buds developed in their axils. The leaflets are borne on very short thick 
The winter-buds are protected by a covering of thick 
petiolules and are oblong, rather remotely and sharply serrate or rarely laciniate, long-pointed, and 
rounded or slightly heart-shaped at the base, with stout midribs and primary veins forking near the 
margin; they are opposite, or the lower ones slightly alternate, the three or four middle pairs being 
considerably longer than those at the two extremities of the leaf. The back of the leaflets as they 
unfold, like the young shoots and the petioles, is covered with bright red hairs. The leaflets are 
bright yellow-green until they are half-grown, and at maturity are dark green and rather opaque on 
the upper surface, and pale or often nearly white on the lower surface, which is then glabrous with the 
exception of the short fine hairs which cover the midrib and occasionally appear on its upper surface. 
In the autumn they turn bright scarlet with shades of crimson, purple, and orange. The male and 
female flowers are usually produced separately on different individuals,’ and in dense panicles with 
1 Perfect flowers, if they occur at all on Rhus typhina, are very plants never produce fruit, although their small ovaries often have 
rare ; and, so far as I have been able to observe, the staminate _ well-developed stigmas. The flowers of the pistillate plants do not 
