28 HOUGH'S AMERICAN WOODS. 



HABITAT. The Schlnus Molle is a native of tropical America, 

 Mexico to Brazil and Peru, but has been extensively planted in warm 

 countries elsewhere for ornamental purposes. The climatic conditions 

 of southern California seem thoroughly congenial to it and it has 

 there been very extensively planted, becoming naturalized in places. 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. Wood rather soft, light, tough, with 

 obscure layers of growth, fine medullary rays and quite regularly dis- 

 posed bands of fine ducts. It is of a mottled brown color with copi- 

 ous pinkish or brownish-white sap-wcod. 



USES. Almost the exclusive use of this tree with us is for orna- 

 mental planting, for which it is justly very popular. It is found 

 ornamenting the streets and door yards everywhere throughout south- 

 ern California where it grows rapidly and attains its largest size. In 

 that region it is now a feature of almost every suburban scene. The 

 trees when felled make fairly good fuel. 



MEDICINAL PROPERTIES. The leaves and bark and the gum-resinous 

 exudation have been employed medicinally. The fruit has been used 

 successfully in the treatment of gonorrhoea, as a substitute for cubebs.* 

 It also possesses purgative properties. 



NOTE. When fragments of the fresh leaves of this tree are placed 

 in water they move about by jerks as they float upon its surface, as 

 though animate objects possessed of an ability of voluntary motion. 

 This motion is caused by the bursting of glands in the tissues and the 

 discharge therefrom of a volatile oil. 



GENUS RHUS, LINNAEUS. 



Leaves alternate, mostly compound (rarely simple) without stipules. Floirers 

 minute, white or greenish, polygamous or dioecious by abortion, in axillary or 

 terminal compound panicles ; calyx 5-lobed, generally persistent ; petals 5, longer 

 than the lobes of the calyx and inserted under the margin of the disk which sur- 

 rounds the base of the free ovary imbricated in aestivation ; stamens 5, alternate 

 with the petals, with subulate filaments and oblong introrse 2-celled anthers, 

 attached by the back and longitudinally dehiscent, rudimentary in the pistillate 

 flowers ; pistil with 1-celled ovary, three terminal styles with capitate stigmas, the 

 ovary containing a single anatropous ovule suspended by a funiculus rising from 

 the base of the cell. Fruit a smooth or hairy berry with thin dryish and resinous 

 sarcocarp and crustaceous or horny endocarp : seed destitute of albumen and with 

 thin membranous testa. 



(The name, Rims, is the old Latin and Greek name of the Sumach.) 



179. RHUS INTEGRIFOLIA, 3. & H. 



SOUR-WOOD, SOUR OAK, SOUR-BERRY, MAHOGANY. 

 Ger., Sauerbeere; Fr. , Sumac Occidental; Sp., ZHHHHJU*' <)<-<-'nLnt<iL 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS : Leaves usually simple (but sometimes showing a dis- 

 position to become compound, as leaves are found, especially on Santa Catalina 

 Isd., with from two to five leaflets) persistent, irregularly ovate-orbicular to obo- 



* U. S Dispensatory, 17th ed., p. 1739. 



