Handbook of Trees of the Northern States 



311 



The Poison Suni:uli is opnerally stigmatized 

 as being the most poisonous American tree. 

 It rarely attains tlie heigiit of 20 or 30 ft. and 

 its short trunk, occasionally S or 10 in. in 

 diameter, forks near the ground and sends up 

 a few large branches which form a wide open 

 loj). It is much more common as a large 

 shrub than a tree. Fortunately its home is 

 exclusively swamps and the low miry banks of 

 streams, as though nature were making an 

 effort to keep it in places least frequented by 

 human beings, who are easy victims to its 

 poisonous emanations. Yet, in strange con- 

 tradiction, it is given a foliage and pearl-like 

 fruit of rare beauty which tempt the unsus- 

 pecting, and then it poisons him who touches, 

 \inless he hajjpens to be immune as some peo- 

 ple are. 2 It is occasionally found skirting 

 tlif borders of ponds, where in autumn the 

 i:h>ry of its brilliant red and orange tints '^ 

 il()ul)led by reflection in their waters, and the 

 beauty of such a scene is rarely forgotten. 



Its wood is light, a cubic foot when abso- 

 lutely dry, weighing 27.30 lbs., tough and of a 

 golden yellow color streaked with tints of 

 brown and green and witli cl(>ar white sap- 

 wood." 



Lrnrrs 7-14 in. long and with T-l.T short-petio- 

 late ovate-oblong or obovate entire leaflets {tlio 

 terminal one often 2 or o-lobed) obtuse or acute 

 and nnoqual at liase and mostly acuminate at apex. 

 lnstr(i\is dark green above, paler and prominently 

 veined beneath. Fhiirirs (.tune) yellow-green, VU 

 in. across, in long loose axilary panicles. Fruit 

 ripens in Sei>tember and often hangs from leafless 

 branches in the winter, in long loose panicles: 

 drupe compressed globose, about Vi in. in di- 

 ameter, shining ivory white or grayish ; stone 

 striated. 



1. Syn. JOii 



■itcuata deC 



2. Drs. Seward and Wakelev, of Orange, N. J., 

 tell me that they find in the fluid extract of 

 Orindclia rohiista an almost infallible remedy 

 against the poisoning of Poison Sumach, Ivy, and 

 the allied species. They administer it both as 

 an internal remedy (in doses of one drop everv 

 two hours) and as a topical applicant. 



