STUDIES OF PLANT LIFE 

 STAG-HORN SUMAC Rhus typhina (L.). 



Though belonging to a very poisonous order of plants, our 

 common native Sumac is more noted for its useful than its 

 hurtful qualities. Both the Dwarf Sumac, R. glabra, and the 

 common R. typhina are to be found all through Western 

 Canada, in groves and on old neglected clearings, on rocky 

 islets and by roadsides, the seeds being largely sown by the 

 birds that feed upon the berries. 



The foliage of the Sumac is very graceful and highly 

 ornamental to the landscape in the fall of the year, when 

 its long drooping pinnate leaves, from nineteen to thirty- 

 one-foliate, assume the most glowing tints of orange, scarlet 

 and crimson. The flowers are of two kinds, or dioecious, in 

 close conical upright heads, terminating the branches; the 

 fruit, small round berries, beset with soft crimson acid hairs, 

 which remain persistent on the receptacle, around which 

 they cluster and give to the tree a strikingly ornamental 

 appearance. These beautiful crimson velvet-like cones con- 

 tinue all through the cold wintry weather, forming a con- 

 tinual feast for the late going and early coming birds a 

 bountiful provision for those pensioners on God's providence 

 who " neither sow nor reap, and yet our Heavenly Father 

 feedeth them." 



The term Stag-horn I imagine to have been suggested not 

 only by the extended branches but also by the fine brown 

 downy covering that clothes the branchlets and stems of the 

 leaves and flower-bearing shoots, resembling the velvety 

 down on the young horns of deer when they first sprout forth. 



The wood of the Stag-horn Sumac is of a fine yellow 

 color, and the chips and bark are used as dyewoods. The 

 bark is used in tanning and the root as a powerful astringent 

 and tonic in intermittent fever, while the acid fruit can be 



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