428 



The Canadian Horticulturist. 



POISON IVY OR SUMACH. 

 Trailing- Sumach. 



(Rhus Toxicodendron.) 



LTHOUCiH much has been said and written about this very noxious 

 plant, only few persons seem to know the danger of approaching it, 

 until they are taught by woeful experience. It is traditionally stated 

 that at one time there existed a kind of animals called " Basilisks," 

 whose breath blasted vegetation. But although I believe the 

 statement, I cannot vouch for the truth of it. 



I do know, however, that the venomous exhalations of this plant 



has caused great distress to some persons, and considerable suffering to many, 



who unknowingly would again lie down upon a clump of it as readily as they 



would on a bed of ferns. 



Last fall I met a number of friends returning from camp on one of the 



Rideau Islands. One of them had been blind for three days, and her body 



was seemingly afflicted with exczema and erysipelas. She had been told it was 



the effects of poison ivy, but said she would not know the plant if she saw it. 

 Poison ivy is not the right name of this plant — it is no relation to the ivy, 



but is a member of the sumach family, of which there are about thirty species. 



It has probably been given the name of ivy on account of its somewhat trailing 



habit. It sends out root-stalks near the surface, whereby it multiplies and 



increases rapidly. 



It is an unattractive plant, and is not 



readily distinguished from small plants 



of some of the other sumachs. It seldom 



grows more that i y 2 feet high unless sup- 

 ported by some other shrub. Even the 



smell of the poison which it emits can be 



detected only by persons of the keenest 



scent. The plant is sometimes mistaken 



for the Virginia creeper, but its growth is 



not nearly so vigorous and its leaves are 



ternate, i.e., having only three leaflets 



on the leaf-stalk, whereas the leaf of the 



Virginia creeper, or Virgin's bower, are 



compound, having five leaflets on the leaf- 

 stalk. The flowers are produced in loose 



clusters, nearly white, at the ends of the 



branches, in July. 



Fig. 406. — poison ivy, kiiis toxicodendron. 



