STUDIES OF PLANT LIFE 



BUTTON-BUSH Cephalanthus occidentalis (L.). 



A pretty shrub about five feet high, belonging to the 

 Rubiacece or Madder family, with light green smooth leaves, 

 and round heads of closely set whitish-green flowers. The 

 corolla is tubular, slender; style thready and protruding 

 beyond the petals. The flowers have a sweet, faint perfume. 

 This shrub is chiefly found in low thickets on the borders of 

 swamps. The receptable remains persistent on the bush in 

 dry round button-like heads, whence its common name. I 

 am not acquainted with any particular qualities possessed 

 by this shrub. It flowers in August. 



POISON IVY POISON OAK POISON ELDER Rhus 

 Toxicodendron (L.). 



The Sumac family boasts of two of the most poisonous 

 vegetables yet known in Canada, viz., Rhus venenata or 

 Poison Sumac, and Rhus Toaicodendron or Poison Ivy. 

 The former, R. venenata (DC.), is an elegant shrub, growing 

 in swamps, with shining smooth odd-pinnate leaves, and 

 from ten to fifteen feet high, producing when touched a 

 violent sort of erysipelas, in some cases fatal in its effects. 

 The leaflets, from seven to thirteen, oval, entire, pointed; 

 the flowers, small, insignificant, greenish, in loose panicles 

 from the axils of the upper leaves; berries green, smooth, 

 of the size of peas. This is spoken of as the most deadly 

 of the poisonous sumacs, but fortunately it is of rare 

 occurrence. The common Poison Ivy, however, is only too 

 frequently met with; it grows in low ground or on barren 

 rocky islands, among wild herbs and grasses, in open 

 thickets, at the roots of stumps, and will often find its way 

 into our gardens. It may be found in cultivated fields, 

 flourishing on stone heaps indeed, wherever its roots can 



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