RH U 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



RHU 



46$ 





ing almost like glass, though it can stand boiling water with- 

 out receiving any damage. With this the Japanese varnish 

 over the posts of their doors and windows, their drawers, 

 chests, boxes, cimeters, fans, tea-cups, soup-dishes, their 

 portable stools, and most articles of household furniture 

 which are made of wood. It far exceeds the Chinese and 

 Siamese varnish, and the best sort of it is collected about the 

 town of Jassino. It is cleared from impurities by wringing 

 it through very fine thin paper; then about a hundredth 

 part of an oil called Foi, which is expressed from the fruit 

 of Bignonia Tomentosa, is added to it, and being put into 

 wooden vessels, either alone or mixed with native Cinnabar, 

 or some black substance, it is sold all over Japan. The ex- 

 pressed oil of the seed serves for candles. Propagation 

 and Culture. This species, and the seventeenth, eighteenth, 

 nineteenth, and twentieth, propagate in plenty by their creep- 

 ing stalk and roots, or by laying down their branches, which 

 will put out roots in one year, and may then be taken off 

 and transplanted, either in the places where they are to re- 

 main, or in a nursery, to grow two or three years, to get 

 strength before they are planted for good: they are also pro- 

 pagated by seeds, which should be sown on a bed of light earth, 

 and when the plants come up, they must be kept clear from 

 weeds the following summer; and before the frost comes on 

 in autumn, the bed should be hooped, that the plants may 

 be covered with mats, for otherwise the early frosts will kill 

 thtir tops, which frequently causes their stalks to decay to 

 the ground ; for as the plants are slender, and generally 

 shoot late the first year, they are in much greater danger 

 than when they get more strength. In spring they may be 

 transplanted into the nursery beds to grow a year or two, 

 and after that may be finally transplanted. The juice of the 

 wood is poisonous to animals in confined places. 



7. Rhus Succedaneum; Red Lac Sumach. Leaves pin- 

 nate, quite entire, perennial, shining ; petioles entire, equal. 

 This is allied to the preceding, but is certainly distinct, par- 

 ticularly in the size of the leaves. It flowers in June. Na- 

 tive of Japan and China. The oil of the seeds, expressed 

 whilst warm, acquires the consistence of suet, and serves for 

 making candles. The trunk yields a varnish, but in so small 

 a quantity as not to be worih collecting. The true Chinese 

 Varnish or Lacker Tree is called Sat Shu, and not U Tong 

 Shu. In collecting the varnish, they make an incision in the 

 bark, and insert a tube for the juice to run into a little pot, 

 which is taken every morning before sun-rise. 



8. Rhus Semialatum ; Half-winrjed Sumach. Leaves pin- 

 nate, serrate ; petioles on the outmost inteniodes, membra- 

 naceous. Native of China, near Macao. 



9. Rhus Copallinum ; Lentiscus-leaved Sumach. Leaves 

 pinnate, quite entire; petiole membranaceous, jointed. This 

 seldom rises more than four or five feet high. Native ol 

 North America. See the first species. 



10. Rhus Alatum : Winged Sumach. Leaves pinnate; 

 leaflets ovate, serrate at the end ; petioles on all the inter- 

 uodes, winged. Native of the Cape of Good Hope. This, 

 and all the rest of the African species, being too tender to 

 live throughout the winter in the open air in England,- are 

 planted in pots or tubs, and housed in autumn : and during 

 the winter they must be treated in the same way a-s othei 

 hardy greenhouse plants. They retain all their leaves through 

 the year, and make a good variety when intermixed with 

 other plants in the greenhouse in winter. They may be 

 propagated by cuttings, which should be planted in pots 

 filled with loamy earth at the beginning of April, and plun^et 

 into a very moderate hot-bed, covering them close with hanc 

 or bell glasses, and screening them from the sun in the heat 





of the day. The cuttings should be moderately refreshed 

 with water. With this management they will put out roots 



n about two months, and when they begin to shoot they 

 should have air admitted to them, and be gradually hardened 

 to bear the open air, into which they must be removed, 

 placing them in a sheltered situation; and when the cuttings 

 lave rilled the pots with their roots, they should be taken 

 out of the pots and parted carefully, planting each into a 



eparate small pot, placing them in the shade till they have 

 taken new root, when they may be intermixed with ether 

 exotic plants in a sheltered situation for the summer, and in 

 autumn removed into the greenhouse. 



11. Rhus Pauciflorum ; Few-flowered Sumach. Leaves 

 pinnate; leaflets alternate, decurrent, wedge-shaped, serrate 

 at the end ; panicle sessile, few-flowered. Native of the 

 Cape. See the preceding species. 



12. Rhus Metopium ; Hog Gum Tree. Leaves pinnate, 

 quinate, quite entire, roundish, smooth. This tree seldom 

 rises to more than twenty-five or thirty-five feet, and is 

 very spreading towards the top. It yields a great quantity 

 of a gummy resin, which when pure is of a yellow colour, 

 and after a short time acquires a hard brittle consistence. 

 It is daily used in strengthening plasters, for which it is 

 deservedly recommended. It is of a warm discutient nature, 

 and may be used in all swellings arising from colds, &c. 

 both externally and internally. The gum, dissolved in water, 

 is an easy purgative, and thought to be an extraordinary 

 diuretic. In Jamaica it is frequent enough, and the hogs 

 are said to have recourse to it when wounded in the woods. 

 Native of America. 



13. Rhus Digitatum ; Finger-leaved Sumach. Scandent: 

 leaves pinnate ; leaflets oblong, quite entire, very smooth. 

 Native of the Cape. See the tenth species. 



14. Rhus Pentaphyllum ; Five-leaved Sumac/i. Thorny ; 

 leaves digitate; leaflets linear-lanceolate, wider upwards, 

 blunt, toothed, or entire at the end. This tree is very much 

 branched, and has stout florifercwis thorns: the bark is gray, 

 dyes red, and is fit for tanning leather. Native of Darbary, 

 on uncultivated hills near Arzeati. 



15. Rhus Viridifolium. Plant slightly glabrous ; leaves 

 numerously pinnate ; leaflets lanceolate-oblong, serrate, sub- 

 tomentose; racemes erect, herbaceous; flowers yellowish- 

 green. Grows on the edges of woods, in dry sunny situa- 

 tions, in Pennsylvania and Virginia, Pursh thinks it pro 

 bable that this plant is merely a variety of Rhus Glabrum. 



16. Rhus Pumilum. Plant low; branches and petioles 

 pubescent; leaves numerously pinnate; folioles ova], iiiciso- 

 dentate, tomentose underneath ; fruits clothed with velvet 

 down. Grows in Upper Carolina, and is never seen above 

 a foot high. This plant is the most poisonous of the genus, 

 according to Mr. J. Lyon, who, by collecting the seed of this 

 species, got poisoned all over his body, and was laiued 

 for a considerable time. 



** With tcrnate Leiives. 



17. Rhus Cirrhifolium. Scandent: leaves teniate; leaflets 

 quite entire, smooth. Native of the Cape. 



18. Rhus Tridentatum. Scandent: leaves ternate; leaflets 

 hoary, serrate; serratures three to five. Native of the Cape. 



19. Rhus Radicans; Rooting Poison-oak or Sumach. 

 Leaves ternate ; leaflets petioled, ovate, naked, quite entire ; 

 stem rooting. This has a low shrubby stalk, which seldom 

 rises more than three feet high, sending out shoots near the 

 bottom, which trail upon the ground, putting out roots from 

 their joints, whereby it multiplies and spreads greatly. If it 

 be near a wall, the fibres will strike into the joints, and sup- 

 port the stalks when' severed from the root. When it is thus 



