468 



RHU 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



RHU 



it will secure them from injury, for while they are young, 

 and the upper part of the shoots is soft, they will be in dan- 

 ger of suffering in very severe winters ; but in mild weather 

 must always enjoy the open air, and should therefore never 

 be covered but in frost. The spring following, just before 

 the plants begin to shoot, they should be shaken out of the 

 pots, and carefully separated, so as not to tear the roots, 

 and then transplanted into a nursery, in rows three feet asun- 

 der, and about one foot distance in the rows. In this nursery 

 they may stand two years to get strength, and then may be 

 transplanted where they are to remain. The seeds which 

 are sown in the full ground, may be covered the first winter 

 with some old tanner's bark, to keep out the frost; and in 

 the spring it may be drawn off again after the danger of the 

 hard frost is over; and when the plants come up, they must 

 be kept clean from weeds, which is all the care they will 

 require the first summer: but as the plants in the full ground 

 are apt to grow luxuriant, and continue growing late in 

 autumn, they should be covered, to screen them from the 

 early frost, which will otherwise kill their tops, and this often 

 occasions them to die down a considerable length, and fre- 

 quently almost to the ground in hard winters. In the spring 

 following, the plants may be taken up carefully, and trans- 

 planted into a nursery, at the same distance as before directed. 

 This method of propagating the plants from seeds is seldom 

 practised after the plants are once obtained; for they are very 

 subject to send up a great number of suckers from their 

 roots, whereby they are easily propagated. The suckers of 

 all the sorts may be taken up and planted in the nursery for 

 a year or two to get strength, and then may be planted where 

 tney are to remain. These shrubs are generally planted in 

 plantations of flowering shrubs in large gardens, where they 

 make a fine variety in autumn, especially the second, fourth, 

 and fifth sorts, with their large purple or red panicles, which 

 have a good effect; but where these are planted, their suckers 

 must be every year taken off, otherwise they will grow up to a 

 thicket, and destroy the neighbouring plants. 



2. Rhus Typhium ; Virginian Sumach. Leaves pinnate ; 

 leaflets lanceolate, acuminate, sharply tomentose underneath. 

 This has a woody stem, from which are sent out many irregu- 

 lar branches, generally crooked and deformed. The flowers 

 are produced in close tufts at the ends of the branches in 

 July, and are followed by seeds enclosed in purple woolly 

 succulent covers, so that the branches are of a beautiful purple 

 colour in autumn. This shrub, as well as the preceding, is 

 used for tanning leather ; and the roots are prescribed in 

 medicine where it grows naturally, that is, in almost every 

 part of North America. See the preceding species. 



3. Rhus Javanicum; Java Sumach. Leaves pinnate, ovate, 

 acuminate, serrate, tomentose underneath. This is a large 

 tree, with spreading branches. Native of China and Japan, 

 where it flowers in September. The Chinese extract an oil 

 from the berries, by bruising and boiling them in water; this 

 they use as a varnish. 



4. Rhus Glabrum ; Scarlet Sumach. Leaves pinnate, 

 lanceolate, serrate, naked on both sides ; flowers hermaph- 

 rodite. This is not so high as the Common Virginian Sumach ; 

 but the branches are much more spreading and smooth. 

 Native of North America, in woods, high glades, and old 

 corn-fields. It is like a weed in some parts of the country ; 

 and if a field be left a few years uncultivated, this shrub 

 overruns it, from berries which are brought by birds; and 

 when the ground conies again into tillage, the roots stop the 

 plough very much. The fruit remains on the shrub during 

 winter, but the leaves drop very early in the autumn. It 

 seldom grows above three yards high ; and the wood burns 



well, without much crackling. On cutting the stem, a yel- 

 low juice comes out between the bark and the wood ; one or 

 two of the outer circles are white, but the innermost are of 

 a yellowish green : it contains a pith, half an inch in dia- 

 meter or more, of a brown colour, and so loose that it is 

 easily pushed out by a stick. The branches, boiled with the 

 berries, afford a black ink-like tincture. The berries, though 

 very sour, are eaten by children with impunity; they are red, 

 and are used to dye that colour. There are many varieties 

 of this species in North America, but not worth specifying 

 here. See the first species. 



5. Rhus Elegans ; Carolina Sumach. Leaves pinnate, 

 lanceolate, serrate, naked on both sides ; flowers dioecous. 

 This generally rises to the height of seven or eight feet. 

 Native of South Carolina. See the first species. 



6. RhusVernix; Varnish Sumach. Leaves pinnate, very 

 smooth, as well as the branches; leaflets elliptical, entire, 

 somewhat abrupt, pointed ; clusters compound, lax ; flowers 

 dioecous ; fruit polished. This is undoubtedly Kaempfer's 

 Sitz, or True Varnish Tree, with a walnut leaf, and a fruit in 

 a raceme-like cicer. The dried specimens also, brought from 

 Japan, agree with the American Poison Tree ; and the milky 

 juice of both have the same quality of staining a dark brown. 

 Where it grows naturally, it rises with a strong woody stalk 

 to the height of twenty feet or more, but seldom exceeds five 

 or six in England. The trunk is covered with a light brown 

 bark inclining to gray. The whole shrub is in a high degree 

 poisonous, and the poison is communicated by touching or 

 smelling any part of it ; in forty-eight hours afterwards, in- 

 flammation and large blotches will appear on the skin, prin- 

 cipally on the extremities and on the glandulous parts of the 

 body. Small pustules rise soon afterwards in the inflamed 

 parts, and fill with watery matter, occasioning burning and 

 itching. In two or three days the eruptions suppurate; after 

 which the inflammation subsides, and the ulcers heal in a short 

 time. It operates, however, somewhat differently in different 

 constitutions, and some are incapable of being poisoned at all, 

 while irritable persons appear most affected. Kalm gives the 

 same account of his experiment upon one of the trees. An 

 incision being made, a whitish yellow juice, which had a nau- 

 seous smell, came out between the bark and the wood; this, 

 though noxious to some persons, did not in the least affect 

 others. On Kalm it had no effect, except once on a hot day, 

 when, being in some perspiration, he cut a branch, and carried 

 it in his hand for half an hour, smelling at it now and then. 

 It produced a violent itching on his eyelids and the adjoining 

 parts: during a week his eyes were very red, and the eyelids 

 stiff, but the disorder went off by washing the parts in very 

 cold water. Thunberg asserts, that the very best Japan var- 

 nish is made from this tree, which grows in great abundance 

 in many parts of that country, and is likewise cultivated iu 

 several places on account of the great advantages derived 

 from it. This varnish, which oozes out of the tree on its 

 being wounded, is procured from stems that are three years 

 old, and is. received in some proper vessel. When first caught, 

 it is of a lightish colour, and of the consistence of cream, but 

 grows thicker and black on being exposed to the air. It is 

 so transparent, that when laid, pure and unmixed, upon boxes 

 or furniture, every vein of the wood may be clearly seen. 

 For the most part a dark ground is spread under, which 

 causes it to reflect like a mirror; and for this purpose, re- 

 course is frequently had to the fine sludge which is caught in 

 the trough under a grindstone, or to ground charcoal ; occa- 

 sionally a red substance is mixed with the varnish, and 

 sometimes leaf-gold ground very fine. This varnish hardens 

 very much, but will not endure any blows, cracking and fly- 



