452 DECIDUOUS TREES. 



very opposite in most respects of the long compound serrate-leaved 

 and scraggy little sumach of the fields ; and the vine well known as 

 the poison ivy, Rhus toxicodendron, which wreaths walls and trunks 

 of trees with its glossy foliage, differs as widely from both. The fol- 

 lowing is by far the most valuable of the family for embellishment ; 

 THE PURPLE FRINGE TREE OR VENETIAN SUMACH. Rhus 

 cotinus. This forms either a large shrub or small tree of finely 

 rounded outline. The leaves are pretty 

 FlG - 'S3- to examine separately on account of their 



peculiar fineness of texture, their pure 

 bright color, and their cleanly-cut oval 

 form ; and they are borne in such healthy 

 abundance on every part of the branches, 

 and break into so finely rounded masses, 

 that it is very elegant even without the 



peculiar flowering which gives its name. The flowers when they 

 first appear in June, are a pale green color, with a delicate shade of 

 purple, in large delicately divided panicles projected beyond the 

 leaves, and borne so profusely that they seem like masses of down 

 almost covering the shrub, and revealing in their openings the 

 bright green foliage below. These blossoms become more purplish 

 as they remain on the tree, and finally change to dry masses of 

 delicate seed-vessels, which are partly overgrown by the summer 

 growth of leaves. The latter hang on till heavy frosts, and occa- 

 sionally turn to a fine reddish-yellow. Both as a bush and as a 

 tree it is beautiful, curious, and desirable. There are specimens 

 near Philadelphia with trunks eight inches in diameter three feet 

 from the ground, and tops twenty feet high and broad. Fig. 153 

 shows the common form, and appearance when in flower, of a 

 tree or bush five or six years planted. It requires a dry warm 

 soil. 



THE TREE SUMACH, Rhus typhina, a low, irregularly branched, 

 flat-topped, spreading tree or shrub, with compound leaves from two 

 to three feet long, composed of from eleven to nineteen leaflets. The 

 leaves drop very early after changing to a warm yellow or purplish- 

 red. This is occasionally a picturesque tree; its peculiarly level 

 head and warm-toned ailantus-like leaves showing to best advan- 



