SUMACH AND HOLLY 207 



temperate regions of the globe and are perhaps most abundantly 

 represented in South Africa. In North America they are to be 

 found from Canada to southern Mexico, and from the Atlantic to 

 the Pacific. Of the 17 North American forms 5 attain to the 

 stature of small trees. 



Their wood is too small and has too large a pith to be of any 

 commercial value, although the shoots were sometimes used as 

 spouts in tapping the sugar maple. Several of the forms are 

 handsome ornamental shrubs with beautiful foUage and scarlet 

 fruit clusters. The acrid poisonous juice of the Chinese sumach, 

 Rhus vernicifera, furnishes the black varnish used in China and 

 Japan in the manufacture of lacquer. Other species are sometimes 

 used for their contained tannin or for the wax that is obtained from 

 their fruits. 



Our native American forms show a considerable range of varia- 

 tions. Some have feather-like leaves, others like the common 

 poison-ivy have their leaflets in threes, and a small Califomian 

 tree, Rhus integrifoHa, commonly known as the mahogany, fre- 

 quently has simple holly-like leaves. One shrubby eastern form 

 is known as the fragrant or sweet scented sumach, and another 

 found in our western States is often known as the skunk-bush 

 because of its vile odor. 



The largest as well as one of the handsomest sumachs is the stag- 

 horn sumach, R^ms hirta, which occasionally reaches a height of 

 40 feet. It ranges from New Brunswick to Minnesota and south- 

 ward to Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi and is sometimes planted 

 as an ornamental tree in this country and commonly used for that 

 purpose in central and northern Europe. It has pinnate leaves, 

 10 to 24 inches long of 11 to 31 lanceolate falcate, toothed margined 

 leaflets, borne on a velvety pinkish stalk, and of a fine shade of 

 green which becomes darker and more opaque with age. The 

 flowers are greenish and inconspicuous, but the fruits, which are 

 in thick clusters, are bright crimson and very striking. 



Very similar to the preceding but rarely over 20 feet tall is the 

 upland or scarlet sumach, Rhus glabra, sometimes called the smooth 

 sumach in contrast with the staghorn since it lacks the pubescence 



