34 Sumach (Anacardiacecz). [No. 6 



No. 6. Family ANACARDlACE^. (Sumach Fam.) 

 Genus RHUS. 



Possibly from a word meaning "red." 



Fig. 15. Poison-Ivy. Poison-Oak. R. rddicans, L. R. Toxi- 

 code'ndron, L. 



Flowers, small, greenish, in loose clusters from the axils of 

 the leaves ; the staminate and pistillate forms on dif- 

 ferent plants. Petals, five, not united. Sepals, five. 

 Stamens, five, alternate with the petals. Styles, three. 

 Seed-case, free, one-celled, with one seed. 



Leaves, compound, alternate. Leaflets, three ; edges, entire 

 or variously sharp-notched ; mostly pointed, and some- 

 what downy beneath. 



Fruit, small, rounded, pale brown or whitish, smooth, not 

 splitting when ripe, one-seeded. Stone, ridged or 

 lined. September. An almost dry drupe. 



Found, from Canada to Georgia, climbing often in great 

 profusion over walls and fences and up the trunks of 

 trees, taking also at times the shrub form. 



A woody plant which takes all positions ; sometimes it 

 is erect (one to three feet high) ; often it is prostrate and 

 trailing ; oftenest, perhaps, it is climbing. 



In its climbing form it covers the posts of fences, the 

 trunks and branches of trees, stone walls clinging tena- 

 ciously wherever it goes by multitudes of thread-like root- 

 lets, and sometimes reaching a distance of forty or even 

 fifty feet, with a stem from two to five or six inches in 

 diameter. At times it so closely covers its growing sup- 

 port as to smother it. 



