AMERICAN FOREST TREES 609 



some well-known members in other parts of the world, among them the 

 mangoes. The name dwarf sumach is not well selected, for the species is 

 nearly as large as any other sumach. Trees are sometimes thirty feet 

 high and ten inches in diameter. The tree's range extends from New 

 England to Florida and Texas. It reaches its largest size west of the 

 Mississippi river. In the East and North it is usually a shrub. Trees 

 of largest size are not believed to exceed fifty years in age. The wood 

 is richly striped with yellow and black. Balls turned of it, seven inches 

 in diameter, are used for newel-post ornaments, and smaller balls are 

 made for use in darning stockings. Cups are turned on the lathe, and 

 the bright stripes hi the wood give the wares a striking appearance. It 

 was formerly much employed for spiles in tapping maple trees for sugar 

 making. Staghorn sumach (Rhus hirta) is of a different species but of 

 the same genus. Its range extends from New Brunswick nearly to the 

 Mississippi river. Its name refers to the down on the young branches 

 resembling the velvet on the horns of a deer at certain seasons. The tree 

 is known as Virginia sumach and hairy sumach. Its compound leaves 

 are sometimes two feet long two or three times the size of dwarf 

 sumach's. Trunks have been reported forty feet high and more than a 

 foot through. The uses of this wood are the same as of dwarf sumach, 

 including tanning. It is more abundant east than west of the Alleghan- 

 ies. Poisonwood (Rhus metopium) belongs to the same family. It is 

 known in Florida as doctor gum, hog plum, coral sumach, bumwood, 

 and mountain manchineel. The juice is exceedingly poisonous, and gum 

 produced by wounding the bark is reported to have medicinal value. 

 Trees are sometimes forty feet high and two feet in diameter. The 

 American smoke tree (Cotinus cotinoides) is another member of the 

 sumach family. It is found in the southern states from eastern Ten- 

 nessee to Texas. It is nowhere common, and its only reported use is as 

 fence posts. Trees may be a foot in diameter and thirty feet high. The 

 wood is a bright clear orange color, and a yellow dye has been manu- 

 factured from it. Poison sumach (Rhus vernix) is not the same as poison- 

 wood, though sometimes the two are confounded. It is usually a shrub, 

 and rarely twenty feet high. It is overloaded with names, as might be 

 expected of a plant considered as dangerous as this. Among its names 

 are poison elder, poison dogwood, swamp sumacn, poison oak, poison- 

 wood, poisontree, and thunderwood. It grows from New England to 

 Georgia, and west to Minnesota and Louisiana. It is apt to occur in wet 

 swamps, and Sargent pronounces it "one of the most dangerous plants of 

 the North American flora." A black, lustrous varnish can be made of 

 the acrid poisonous juice, and this may sometime give the species a 

 commercial value. When the skin is poisoned by contact with this tree, 



