ACER— RHUS 227 



color, close-grained, heavy but not strong, weighing 39 lbs. It is used 

 in the manufacture of furniture. The bark is sometimes used in dyeing. 

 Blossoms in March and April, fruit ripe in June. 



Acer negundo Linne 1753 Box Elder 



A tree 12-20 m. (36-60 feet) high, usually dividing into a number of 

 stout, spreading branches, bark on trunk dark gray or brown, deeply 

 divided into broad, rounded ridges, leaves 3-5 foliate, with slender petioles, 

 leaflets ovate or oval, rounded or wedge-shaped at the base, acute or 

 acuminate at the apex, coarsely and irregularly serrate, sometimes 3-lobed. 

 glabrous or slightly pubescent, bright green above, paler beneath, 4-10 

 cm. long, 2-7 cm. broad; flowers dioecious, appearing with the leaves, the 

 staminate borne in umbel-like clusters from non-leafy shoots, the pistil- 

 late in terminal racemes on leafy shoots, small, greenish, the staminate 

 on long, hairy pedicels ; fruit in racemes, samaras slightly spreading, wings 

 4-5 cm. long, 10-14 mm. wide, greenish-yellow, falling in autumn or 

 persisting into the winter : negundo, of uncertain derivation. 



Along banks of streams and lakes and along fences, edges of thickets, 

 etc. Common throughout the state especially southward and westward, 

 less frequent northeast. Distributed from Vt. to Manitoba, south to Fla.. 

 Tex., New Mexico and Mexico. Extensively planted as a shade tree 

 and wind break, especially in the prairie regions of the. state. Reproduces 

 very easily from seed. The wood is creamy white in color, close-grained, 

 light, soft and not strong, used for fence posts, fire wood, and to a small 

 extent manufactured into furniture. The sap is used in some localities 

 for making maple sugar. Blossoms in April, fruit ripe in autumn. 



Anacardiaceae Sumac Family 



Trees or shrubs with acrid, resinous or milky sap ; leaves alternate, 

 rarely opposite; flowers small, regular, perfect or polygamous, calyx 3-5 

 cleft, petals 3-7, imbricated in the bud, sometimes lacking, stamens as 

 many or twice as many as the petals, inserted along the edge of a rounded 

 disc, ovary 1-5 celled, styles 1-3, ovule one in each cavity; fruit mostly a 

 small drupe, seed-coat crustaceous or bony. 



Rhus Linne 1753 Sumac 

 (Gr. rhous, sumac) 



Shrubs or trees with alternate, compound or simple leaves, stipules 

 none ; flowers in axillary or terminal panicles, greenish-white or yellow, 



