ANACARDIACE^:. 



Trunk straight, covered with grey scabrous bark ; the bark of the 

 younger parts smooth, light ash-coloured ; its inner substance contains 

 in crevices, a quantity of white, soft, almost insipid gum. Branchlets 

 numerous, spreading. Leaves about the extremities of the branchlets 

 alternate, stalked, somewhat wedge-shaped or oblong-obovate, rounded 

 at the apex, entire, firm above, pretty smooth, yet harsh, and whitish 

 underneath ; from 9 to 18 inches long, and frpm 4 to 8 broad. Petioles 

 1| or 2 inches long, half round. Panicles terminal, very large, com- 

 posed of many simple spikes ; that of the male tree much more slender, 

 but as large, or larger, and branched. Bracts many, small, deciduous. 

 Flowers numerous, small, of a dull greenish yellow colour. Receptacle 

 erect, fleshy, pear-shaped, smooth, when ripe, yellow, about the size of 

 the nut. Fruit a single nut, resting upon the receptacle, cordate, 

 flattened on both sides, smooth, shining, black ; the pericarp composed 

 of two lamina? ; the inner one hard, the outer one less so, and leathery; 

 between them are cells which contain a black corrosive resinous juice. 

 The juice is of a pale milk colour till perfectly ripe, when it becomes 

 black. Male flowers on a separate tree, smaller than the hermaphro- 

 dite. Filaments 5, the length of the petals. Anthers much larger than 

 in the hermaphrodite. Pistil 0, or small and abortive, and in form of a 

 semi-globular, hairy, glandular body. Wood contains much acrid 

 juice which renders it dangerous to those who work upon it. Recep- 

 tacles eaten like apples when roasted. The pure black acrid juice 

 employed externally by the natives of India to remove rheumatic pains, 

 aches and sprains : a little being rubbed over the parts affected ; and 

 is an efficacious remedy except in such constitutions as are subject 

 to inflammations and swellings. Universally used to mark linen. 

 Employed by the Telinga physicians mixed with garlic and other 

 substances in almost every sort of venereal complaint. Bark mildly 

 astringent. 



RHUS. 



Flowers polygamous or hermaphrodite. Calyx small, 5-par- 

 tite, persistent. Petals 5, ovate, spreading, inserted under the 

 margin of the disk : aestivation imbricative. Stamens 5, inserted 

 into the disk, equal, free. Disk orbicular. Ovary sessile, ovate 

 or globose, 1 -celled : ovule solitary, suspended from a longish 

 curved funiculus rising from the base of the cell. Styles 3 from 

 the top of the ovary, distinct or combined. Stigmas distinct, 

 obtuse or capitate. Fruit almost a dry drupe : nut bony 1 -celled. 

 Seed solitary, suspended from a funiculus that rises from the 

 base to the apex of the cell. Embryo inverted : cotyledons fo~ 

 liaceous : radicle opposite to the hilum, bent downwards along 

 the margin of the cotyledons. Shrubs or trees. Leaves alter- 

 nate, simple or compound. Peduncles axillary or terminal. 

 W. and A. 



588. R. venenata DC. prodr. ii. 68. R. vernix Linn. sp. 

 pi. 380. Bigelow med. bot. i. t. 10. Common in North Ame- 

 rica in swamps and meadows ; vulgar name " Poison tree, Poison 

 wood, Poison ash, Poison sumach." 



Trunk from 10 to 30 feet high and 1 to 5 inches in diameter, branch- 

 ing at top, and covered with a pale greyish bark. The ends of the 



284 



