IAP. XXXV1IJ. 



ANACAHDIA CE.E. #HU S. 



549 



C, IA 



small tree, the rind of which was usol for tanning, and the fruit as a spice (Theophrasl. II. Pi., 3. 

 18.); supposed to be some variety of the Tfhus Cutinus." And others derive /fhusfrom the Greek 

 vcrbrhed, I run, from the habit of the roots running and spreading under ground to a considerable 

 distance from the tree. Sumach is derived from Si'maq, the Arabic name of the plant. 



Gen. Char. Sexes hermaphrodite, dioecious, or polygamous. Calyx small, 

 5-parted, persistent. Petals ovate, and inserted into a calycine disk, 

 or into the calyx. Stamens 5, inserted into a calycine disk ; all of them 

 in the flowers of the male and hermaphrodite sexes bearing anthers. 

 Ovary single, perhaps from defect, subglobular, of 1 cell. Styles 3, short, 

 or not any. Stigmas 3. Fruit an almost dry drupe of 1 cell, with a bony 

 nut, which includes a single seed; and, in some instances, 2 3 seeds : when 

 one, perhaps, by defect. Each seed is pendulous by a thread (the raphe), 

 that arises from the bottom of the cell. Cotyledons leafy, their edges, on one 

 side, and the radicle, in contact. (Dec. Prod. y ii. p. 66., and Wats. Dcnd.) 

 Deciduous shrubs, generally with alternate compound leaves ; natives of 

 Europe, Asia, and North and South America. The leaves vary much, both 

 in form and magnitude ; and they generally die off, in autumn, of a dark 

 red, or a bright scarlet, or yellow ; on which account, at that season, they 

 are very ornamental. Most of the species are poisonous, some of them 

 highly so; and they all may be used in tanning, and dyeing yellow or 

 black. They are all easily propagated by cuttings of the root, and some of 

 them by cuttings of the branches. 



i. Cotinus Tourn. 

 Sect. Char. Leaves undivided. Flowers hermaphrodite. 



s 1. R. CO'TINUS L. The Cotinus Rhus, or Venetian Sumach. 



Identification. Lin. Spec., 383. ; Dec. Prod., 2. p. 67. ; Don's Mill., 2. p. 69. 



Synonymes. Cotinus Coggfgria Scop. Cam., ed. 2. No. 368. ; Mccnch Meth.^ 73. ; Cotinus coriacea 



Duh. Arb., 1. 1. 78-; Venus Sumach, Venice Sumach, wild Olive; Sumach Fustet, or Arbre aux 



Pe"ruques, Fr.; Perucken Sumach, Ger. ; Scotino, Ital. 

 Derivation. The term Cotinus is derived from cotinos, a name under which Pliny' speaks of a tree 



with red wood, which is supposed to grow in the Apennines. (Don's Mill., 2. p. 69.) 

 Engravings. Jacq. Aust, t. 210. ; Mill. Icon., t. 270. ; Lob. Icon., t. 99. ; Duh. Arb., t 178 : and our 



jTg. 223. 



Spec. Char.y $c. Leaves obovate. (Dec. Prod., ii. p. 67.) 

 A native of sunny places in the south of Europe and 

 Asia, from Spain to Caucasus. The flowers are disposed 

 in loose panicles, and have the sexes hermaphrodite. 

 The drupe is half-heart-shaped, smooth, and veiny ; its 

 nut is triangular. Many of the flowers are abortive, and 

 their pedicels, after the flowering, lengthen, and become 

 hairy. (Ibid.) 



Description, $c. The Rhus C^otinus, though seldom 

 found higher than 5 ft. or 6 ft. in a wild state, yet grows to 

 double that height in gardens, where it forms a highly or- 

 namental shrub, more especially when covered with its 

 large loose panicles of elongated hairy pedicels, very few 

 of which produce fruit. It is easily known from all the 

 other species by its simple, obovate, smooth, stiff, lucid, 

 green leaves, rounded at the points, and supported by long 

 footstalks, which remain on till they are killed by frost, so 

 that the plant is almost a sub-evergreen. The flowers are 

 produced at the ends of the branches, and are of a pale 

 purplish or flesh colour. Each flower is composed of 5 

 small oval petals, which spread open, but are seldom succeeded by seeds 

 in England. In Greece, and in the south of Russia, the whole plant is used 

 for tanning, and for dyeing leather, wool, and silk yellow. In Italy, about 

 Venice, it is used for dyeing black, and is called by the Italians scotino y from 

 skotios, dark. Sir James Edward Smith found it cultivated under this name 

 for tanning, on a little hill at the back of the inn at Valcimaca, between Rome 

 and Bologna. (Corresp., i. p. 325.) The plant appears to have been known to 



,, p 4. 



