Handbook of Trees of the Noethekn States and Canada 



30; 



The Stag-lioni Suiiuu' 

 or 40 ft. ill hci.yht. will 

 diameter at base, hut is 

 and often forms extciisiv- 



is occasionally ."{.> 

 trunk 12-1.") in. in 

 aially much smaller 

 thickets as a shruit 



but a few feet in height. It usually has a 

 more or less crooked or inclining trunk divid- 

 ing into few large hranches and ultimately 

 forming a broad Hat or somewhat rounded 

 open head. Its favorite home is dry sandy or 

 gravelly uplands or slopes where it grows in 

 abundance in mirtiuMstcrn United States am! 

 Canada, enlivening dcstdate regions with it^ 

 handsome fern-like foliage of green interspersed 

 with large thyrses of pale yellow male flowers 

 or later with crimson bunches of velvety fruit. 

 Its autumnal garb of red, purple and yellow 

 makes it an even more conspicuous object, and 

 when leafless in autumn its velvety spreading 

 branches are quite suggestive of the antlers 

 of a stag in the velvet; whence its name. 



Its wood is light, a cu. ft. wlien absolutely 

 dry weighing 27.1") lbs., soft, and of a golden 

 yellow color streaked witii tints of brown and 

 green with white sap-wood.- The bark and 

 leaves are rich in tannin and an infusion of 

 the tart fruit is used as a gargle. 



12-24 in. Ion", vd- 



Lrnrrs pinnate, deciduous, 12-24 in. 

 vety pubescent, with 11-:>1 hinceolate sul)sessile 

 leaflets rounded at base, lonij-pdinted. sharply ser- 

 rate (rarely lacinintel dark iivrm above, liglitcr 

 and pubescent beneatli. ridinrs yellew-iireen. in 

 terminal dense comnound panicles, staminate 

 panicles much the lavsest : branchlets velvety 

 pubescent. Fruit druues about Vs in. in diameter, 

 globose, covered with crimson acid hairs and 

 massed in comoact nanicles wliich are conspicuous 

 durin<r the en'ire winter at the ends of the velvety 

 branchlets.^ 



1. Rhus typhina L. 



2. A. W., I, 5. 



.'5. For genus see p. 445. 



