TREES GROWING IN DRY SOIL. 287 



STAGHORN SUriAC. VINEGAR TREE. {Plate CL VII.) 



Rhus hirta. 



FAMILY SHAPE HEIGHT RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Sumac. Umbrella-like. 10-40 feet. New Brunswick westward^ June. 



southward to Alabama. Fruit: Aug.-Oct. 



Bark: dark brown; smooth. Inner bark: yellow. Branchlets and leaf- 

 stems: covered thickly with a velvety, crimson down. Juice: milky; viscid, and 

 turning black with exposure to the atmosphere. Leaves ; compound ; alternate; 

 with stout stalks, reddish on their upper sides ; odd-pinnate with from eleven to 

 thirty-one, narrowly oval, sessile leaflets ; taper-pointed at the apex and cordate 

 or rounded at the base ; evenly and sharply serrate. When unfolding covered 

 underneath with reddish hairs and becoming nearly white and glabrous at 

 maturity. Flowers: yellowish green ; growing in large, dense, terminal pani- 

 cles, the fertile ones forming those that are the most compact. Berries : bright 

 crimson; rounded or flattened and covered with long, reddish hairs; acrid; not 

 poisonous. 



Over the surrounding green of summer there is a warmth and 

 richness of colour cast by the splendid hue of this plant's fruit, 

 and the young growth of the tree is a vivid, bright red. This is, 

 in fact, one of the beautiful and very noticeable small trees of 

 the waysides and rocky thickets. Not 

 infrequently, however, it descends to a 

 shrub. The straggling and uneven 

 growth of the tree, as it thrusts the 

 ends of its branches outward, repre- 

 sent somewhat the horns of a stag, 

 and they are similarly covered with a 

 velvety coating. The name vinegar 

 tree is due to the acidity of its fruit 

 and twigs, which is the outcome 

 of the innumerable fine hairs which Rkashtrta. 



cover them. From the young shoots the pith can readily be 

 removed, and quills are thus made with which to draw out the 

 sap of maple trees in the spring-time. Little country boys, 

 however, convert them into pin or putty blowers, and, at the 

 expense of the enemy, amuse themselves highly. Both the 

 bark and the leaves of the tree are rich in tannin. Through 

 the wood large ducts can be seen which designate clearly the 

 annual layers of its growth. 



