i68 



POISONOUS PLANTS 



Dogwood r is found sometimes as a low bush, only a 

 few feet in height, sometimes as an uneven tree of 

 twenty feet or more. Its leaves are compounded of 

 many leaflets, 9-15, like those of other Sumacs, 

 though these leaflets are less pointed and suggest 

 those of a young Ash. Also, the leaflets do not 

 lie flat to the central stalk, but are keeled, as it 

 were, and curve up in a winged manner. In 

 the early season the leaf stems 

 and middle veins are a 

 pale pink; this is an 

 important point to 

 note when the fruit 

 is absent. The ber- 

 ries of the Poison Su - 

 mac are greenish 

 white and hang down in loose 

 bunches like stunted frost 

 grapes. The berries of the 

 harmless Sumacs are red, 

 and held erect in solid pyr- 

 amids. The Poison Sumac 

 grows invariably in damp, if 

 not absolutely marshy 

 ground. The harmless Sumacs prefer dry and 

 rocky soil. It is well for Nature students to 



