Handbook of Trees of the Nobthekn States and Canada. 307 



The St;i<i;-lioni Suiiiacli is occasioiially oo 

 or 40 ft. ill hcijilit, with trunk 12-1.") in. in 

 diameter at base, but is usuailv luuch smaller 

 and often funns f.\teiisi\t' Ihit-kcls as a shrub 

 but a few feet in heij,fhl. It usually has a 

 more or less crooked or ineiining trunk divid- 

 ing into few* large branches and ultimately 

 forming a broad flat or somewhat rounded 

 open head. Its favorite home is dry sandy or 

 gravelly uplands or slopes where it grows in 

 abundance in northeastern United States and 

 Canada, enlivening desolate regions with its 

 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 oliject, ami 

 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. Avhen absolutely 



dry weighing 27.15 lbs., soft, and of a golden 



yellow color streaked with tints of brown and 



green with white sap-wood. 2 The bark and 



leaves are rich in tannin and an infusion of 



the tart fruit is used as a gargle. 



Lravrs pinnate, dpciduous, 12-24 in. long, vel- 

 vety pubescent, with 11-."U lanceolate sub.sessile 

 loaflets rounded at l)ase, lonsj-pointcd. sharply ser- 

 rato (rarely laciniate) dark urccii above, lighter 

 and nubcscont beneath. Fluircrs y(>l low-green, in 

 terminal dense comnound panicles, stamlnate 

 pan'eles much the largest : branchlets velvety 

 pnboscent. FD'it drunps about Vs in. in diameter, 

 globose, covered with Crimson acid hairs and 

 massed in comn.ict nanicles vi-iiicb are conspicuous 

 du'-inT the eiiMre winter al the ends of 1hi> velvely 

 branchlets.' 



1. Rhus typJiina L. 



2. A. W., I, 5. 



'•i. For genus see p. 44.">. 



