Genus RHUS, Linn. 
Anacardiacae. Pentandria Trigynia. 
Syst. Nat. Syst. Lin. 
Synonymes. 
Rhus, Rhamnus, Cctinus, Zizyphus, Myrica, Toxicodendron, Of Authors. 
Derivations. The name, Rhus, is derived from the Greek rhous, or more remotely, from the Celtic word, rhudd, a syno- 
nyme of rud, red; in allusion to the colour of the fruit and leaves of some of the species in autumn. Cotinus is the name of 
a tree with red wood, described by Pliny, as growing on the Apennines. The other names belong to genera which were sup- 
posed by some botanists to include species more properly coming under the head of rhus. 
Generic Characters. Sexes hermaphrodite, dioecious, or polygamous. Calyx small, 5-parted, persistent. 
Petals ovate, and inserted into a calycine disk ; all of them in the flowers of the male and hermaphro- 
dite sexes bearing anthers. Ovary single, perhaps from defect, sub-globular, of 1 cell. Styles 3, short, 
or not any. Stigmas 3. Fruit an almost dry drupe of 1 cell, with a bony nut, which includes a single 
seed ; and, in some instances, 2 3 seeds ; when one, perhaps, by defect. Each seed is pendulous by a 
thread, (the raphe,) that rises from the bottom of the cell. Cotyledons leafy, their edges, on one side, 
' and the radicle, in contact. Be Candolle, Prodromus. 
^HE genus Rhus chiefly consists of deciduous shrubs, generally 
with alternate compound leaves, and are natives of Europe, Asia, 
and North and South America. The foliage widely varies, both 
in form and size ; and, in autumn, before it falls, it changes to a 
yellow, dark-red, or scarlet, on which account, at that season, 
it is highly ornamental. Don, in " Miller's Gardeners' Dic- 
tionary," describes ninety-seven species of this genus; but Mr. Loudon was of 
the opinion that, if it were possible to bring them all together, and cultivate them 
in the same garden, he questioned much whether there would be found more 
than a fourth part of them entitled to be considered specifically or permanently 
distinct. Most of them are poisonous, some of which are highly so, and probably 
they all may be used in tanning, and dyeing yellow and black. The species 
most worthy of note, and which have been cultivated for ornament, or have been 
applied to useful purposes in the arts, are the Rhus typhina, venenata, aromat- 
ica, and copallina, for ornament ; and the Rhus radicans, for medicine, in North 
America ; the Rhus cotinus and coriaria, for tanning and dyeing, of the shores 
of the Mediterranean ; and the Rhus vernicifera, or varnish-producing sumac ; of 
Japan and Nepal. 
