664 



TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



a trunk 5' -6' in diameter, slender rather pendulous branches forming a narrow round- 

 topped head, and slender glabrous branchlets reddish brown and covered with minute 

 orange-colored lenticels when they first appear, orange-brown at the end of their first 

 season, becoming light gray and marked by large elevated conspicuous leaf-scars; more 



Fig. 599 



often a shrub, with several slender clustered stems. Winter-buds acute and covered with 

 dark purple scales puberulous on the back, and ciliate on the margins with short pale hairs, 

 the terminal '-f ' long and two or three times larger than the axillary buds. Bark of the 

 trunk thin, light gray, smooth or sometimes slightly striate. Wood light, soft, coarse- 

 grained, light yellow streaked with brown, with lighter colored sapwood. 



Distribution. Wet sw r amps often inundated during a portion of the year; northern 

 New England to northern Florida and southern Alabama, and westward to Ontario and 

 southeastern Minnesota, western Louisiana and the valley of the Neches River (San 

 Augustine County) eastern Texas; common and one of the most dangerous plants of the 

 North American flora. An infusion of the young branches and leaves is employed in 

 homoeopathic practice, and the juice can be used as a black lustrous durable varnish. 



4. Rhus integrifolia B. & H. Mahogany. 



Leaves simple or very rarely 3-foliolate, persistent, acute or rounded at apex, with thick- 

 ened revolute, or spinosely toothed margins (var. serrata Engler), puberulous when young, 

 and at maturity l|'-3' long, l'-l' wide, thick and coriaceous, dark yellow-green above, 

 paler below, and glabrous with the exception of the stout petiole, broad thick midrib, and 

 prominent reticulate veins. Flowers appearing from February to April, \ r in diameter 

 when expanded, on short stout pedicels, with 2-4 broad-ovate pointed persistent scarious 

 ciliate pubescent bractlets, in short dense racemes forming hoary-pubescent terminal 

 panicles I' -3' in length; sepals rose-colored, orbicular, concave, ciliate on the margins, 

 rather less than half the length of the rounded ciliate reflexed rose-colored petals; stamens 

 as long as the petals, with slender filaments and pale anthers, minute and rudimentary in 

 the pistillate flower; ovary broad-ovoid, pubescent, with 3 short thick connate styles and 

 very large 3-lobed capitate stigmas, rudimentary in the staminate flower. Fruit \' long, 

 ovoid, flattened, more or less gibbous, thick, dark red, densely pubescent; stone kidney- 

 shaped, smooth, light chestnut-brown, with thick walls; seed flattened, pale, with a broad 

 dark-colored funicle covering its side. 



A tree, rarely 30 high, with a short stout trunk 2-3 in diameter, numerous spreading 

 branches, and stout branchlets covered when they first appear with thick pale pubescence 



