142 History of Hingham. 



swampy lands, while it also flourishes on uplands. It is a hand- 

 some tree, conspicuous in the fall through the bright uniform red 

 of its leaves. 



The Sugar Maple (Acer saccharinum, Wang.) is also indigenous 

 to this region, although the fact of its being so is not generally 

 known. It grows, and specimens of large size are now standing, 

 near the Cohasset line. This species, which is cultivated every- 

 where in town as an ornamental tree, is always one of our most 

 beautiful shade-trees. Bright and healthy in foliage all through 

 the summer, in autumn nothing can exceed its beauty, the leaves 

 turning red, scarlet, and yellow, these colors often mingling in 

 patches with the bright green on individual leaves. The forests 

 in the North, when made up mainly of the Sugar Maple, exhibit a 

 splendor unparalleled elsewhere in the world. 



ANACARDIACEiE. 



The plants of the Rhus family are very common all over the 

 township, and on one or two of the islands. The Staghorn 

 Sumac (Rhus typhina, L.), its leaves coarser, and like the branch- 

 lets and deep crimson fruit, very velvety-hairy, and the Smooth 

 Sumac (Rhus glabra, L.) with leaves, branches, and scarlet fruit 

 smooth, are found everywhere. The smaller and more delicate 

 Dwarf Sumac (Rhus copallina, L.) grows east of the Old Colony 

 Hill and in various other localities. It is a beautiful species, by 

 no means so common as the preceding. 



The Poison Dogwood (Rhus venenata, D C ), a delicate low 

 tree, is common in swamps everywhere; and the Poison Ivy 

 (Rhus Toxicodendron, L.) grows in great profusion. No family 

 of woody plants presents a more show}- beauty of foliage at all 

 seasons than this. In the gorgeous apparel of autumn, the Rhus 

 is particularly conspicuous, and of all the species, the most bril- 

 liant is the dangerous Poison Dogwood. 



LEGUMINOSiE. 



This order has but one representative among our woody plants : 

 the Common Locust (Robinia pseudacaeia, L.). The Locust grows 

 on Lincoln Street, Kilby Street, at Rocky Nook, and elsewhere. 

 Its delicate foliage and long racemes of fragrant white flowers 

 would make it one of the most desirable of our ornamental trees 

 but for the ravages of the worm which honeycombs its very hard 

 and tough wood, and often destroys its beauty at an early age. 



ROSACEiE. 



This large order in its subdivisions is very fully represented in 

 Hingham. 



The Beach Plum (Primus maritima, Wang.) still exists on 



