TREES GROWING IN DRY SOIL. 289 



SMOOTH UPLAND SUMAC. SCARLET SUHAC. 



(Plate CL VII 7.) 



Rhiis glabra. 



Along the waysides and hugging the borders of fields this 

 sumac raises itself so lustily and so often that there are few 

 among us to whom it is not familiar. Too frequently, the ban 

 of being poisonous is placed upon it, and this, it must be re- 

 gretted, is the outcome of a melancholy lack of observation. 

 The sharply serrated leaves, the terminal growth and shape of 

 the closely packed bunches of beautiful, crimson fruit, are ever 

 ready to help us in distinguishing it from the deadly poisonous 

 sumac, Rhus vernix^ which inhabits the swamps. It is interest- 

 ing to notice in this species, as also in the staghorn sumac, 

 that sometimes the whole or part of the flower-cluster has 

 not been transformed into flowers, but has remained as smalt 

 green leaves. 



AILANTHUS. CHINESE SUMAC. TREE-OF-HEAVEN. 



(Plate CLIX.) 

 Aildnthus glandulbsa. 



FAMILY SHAPE HEIGHT RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Ailanthus. Round-topped, 40-90 feet. Escaped from cultivation. June. July, 



spreading. Fruit: Oct. 



Bark : brown ; smooth. Branchhts : covered with whitish dots. Leaves : 

 very large; compound; alternate; odd-pinnate; with from seventeen to 

 forty-one leaflets, with short petiolules ; the odd one often absent or 

 dwarfed and coarsely toothed. Leaflets : lanceolate or long ovate ; taper- 

 pointed at the apex, and squared or slightly cordate at the base ; entire, with 

 one or two blunt teeth at each side near the base ; feather-veined; bright 

 green above, lighter below; thin and almost glabrous. Flowers: small; 

 greenish yellow ; growing in terminal, compound panicles. Calyx : of five 

 minute sepals. Corolla : of five petals. Stamens : in sterile flowers, ten. 

 Fertile flowers : with from two to five ovaries. Samaras: flat; the seeds 

 growing in the centre of the thin, membranous wing. 



The generic and Asiatic name of this remarkable tree is 

 from " ailanto," which means, Tree of Heaven, and by the 



