CHAP. XXXVIII. 



ANACARDIA CEiE. RHV S. 



54-9 



small tree, the rind of which was used for tanning, and the ftruit as a spice [Theophrast. H. PI., 3. 

 18.); supposed to be some variety of the /ihus Cotinus." And others derive 7?husfrom the Greek 

 verb rked, I run, from the habit of the roots running and spreading under ground to a considerable 

 distance from the tree. Sumach is derived from Simaq, the Arabic name of the plant. 



Gen. Char. Sexes hermaphrodite, dioecious, or polygamous. Calyx small, 



5-parted, persistent. Petals ovate, and inserted into a calycine disk, 



or into the calyx. Stamens 5, inserted into a calycine disk ; all of them 



in the flowers of the male and hermaphrodite sexes bearing anthers. 



Ovary single, perhaps from defect, subglobular, of 1 cell. Styles 3, short, 



or not any. Stigmas 3. Fruit an almost dry drupe of 1 cell, with a bony 



nut, which includes a single seed; and, in some instances, 2 — 3 seeds : when 



one, perhaps, by defect. Each seed is pendulous by a thread (the raphe), 



that arises from the bottom of the cell. Cotyledons leafy, their edges, on one 



side, and the radicle, in contact. (Bee. Prod., ii. p. 66., and Wats. Bend.) 



— Deciduous shrubs, generally with alternate compound leaves ; natives of 



Europe, Asia, and North and South America. The leaves vary much, both 



in form and magnitude ; and they generally die off, in autumn, of a dark 



red, or a bright scarlet, or yellow ; on which account, at that season, they 



are very ornamental. Most of the species are poisonous, some of them 



highly so; and they all may be used in tanning, and dyeing yellow or 



black. They are all easily propagated by cuttings of the root, and some of 



them by cuttings of the branches. 



Sect. Char. 



§ i. Qotinus Tourn. 

 Leaves undivided. Flowers hermaphrodite. 



^ \. R. C'o'tinus L. The Cotinus Rhus, or Venetian Sumach, 



Identification. Lin. Spec, 383. ; Dec. Prod., 2. p. fi7. ; Don's Mill., 2. p. 69. 



Sunonumes. C6tinus CoggS'-gria Scop. Cam., ed. 2. No. 3fi8. ; Mcench Meth., 73. ; Cotinus coriJicea 

 Duh. Arb.,\.t.'19i.; Venus Sumach, Venice Sumach, wild Olive; Sumach Fustet, or Arbre aux 

 P^ruques, Fr.; Periicken Sumach, Ger. ; Scotino, Ital. 

 Derivation. The term Cutinus is derived from cotiiios, a name under which Plinyl speaks of a tree 



with red wood, which is supposed to grow in the Apennines. {Don's Mill., 2. p. 69.) 

 Engravings. Jacq. Aust., t. 210. ; Mill. Icon., t. 270. ; Lob. Icon., t. 99. ; Duh. Arb., t. 178. ; and our 



M. 223. 

 Spec. Char., Sfc. Leaves obovate. {Bee. Prod., ii. p. 67.) 

 A native of sunny places in the south of Europe and 

 Asia, from Spain to Caucasus. The flowers are disposed 

 in loose panicles, and have the sexes hermaphrodite. 

 The drupe is half-heart-shaped, smooth, and veiny ; its 

 nut is triangular. Many of the flowers are abortive, and 

 their pedicels, after the flowering, lengthen, and become 

 hairy. {Ibid.) 



Bescription, Sfc. The -Rhus Cotinus, though seldom 

 found higher than 5 ft. or 6 ft. in a wild state, yet grows to (^ 

 double that height in gardens, where it forms a highly or- ^^ 

 namental shrub, more especially when covered with its 

 large loose panicles of elongated hairy pedicels, very few 

 of which produce fruit. It is easily known from all the 

 other species by its simple, obovate, smooth, stiff", lucid, 

 green leaves, rounded at the points, and supported by long 

 footstalks, which remain on till they are killed by frost, so 

 that the plant is almost a sub-evergreen. The flowers are 

 produced at the ends of the branches, and are of a pale 

 purplish or flesh colour. Each flower is composed of 5 

 small oval petals, which spread open, but are seldom succeeded by seeds 

 in England. In Greece, and in the south of Russia, the whole plant is used 

 for tanning, and for dyeing leatlier, wool, and silk yellow. In Italy, about 

 Venice, it is used for dyeing black, and is called by the Italians scotino, from 

 skotios, dark. Sir James Edward Smith found it cultivated under this name 

 for tanning, on a Httle hill at the back of the inn at Valcimaca, between Rome 

 and Bologna. {Covresp., i. p. 325.) The plant appears to have been known to 



p p 4 



