48 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [anNO 175(5. 



cannot be the poison ash, known to the gardeners, he observes, besides its having 

 a pear-shaped fruit, that he is persuaded, as are many other persons skilled in 

 these things, that Mr. Catesby never saw the blossom of this tree, so as to de- 

 termine absolutely its genus, or he would certainly have given it to us ; and that 

 he does not once say, that the inhabitants of Carolina call it the poison tree, or 

 even that it grows among them. Mr. E. has given (fig. 3,) a sketch of a leaf, 

 and some of the fruit, which he copied out of Catesby's Natural History, that it 

 may be compared with the other figures, to save the trouble of turning to the 

 original. 



How near the Jesuit, Father D'Incarville's, Pekin varnish-tree, which he says^ 

 grows in the province of Nankin, will agree with the figure Kaempfer has given 

 of his fasi-no-ki, (fig. 4,) or spurious varnish-tree, which Mr. Miller says in his 

 letter are the same, Mr. E. leaves to those gentlemen who may have seen it 

 growing in the curious exotic garden at Busbridge, or at the physic garden at 

 Chelsea ; at both which places it has been raised from seed received from the r. s. 

 sent by Father D'Incarville ; but lest it may not be in the power of every 

 curious person to take that trouble, Mr. E. sent the figure of one of the leaves, 

 which he drew from a specimen he got in the former garden. As it has not been 

 yet described, he calls it (fig 5.) " Rhus Sinense foliis alatis, foliolis oblongis 

 acuminatis, ad basin subrotundis et dentatis." The lobes or small leaves are of 

 an oblong figure, pointed at top and roundish at the bottom, where they are re- 

 markably jagged with about 4 teeth. He joined to the figure of this on the 

 same paper an exact copy of a leaf of Kaempfer's fasi-no-ki (fig. 4,) or spurious 

 varnish-tree. Kaempfer, takes notice in his, that the middle nerve often divides 

 the small leaves into 1 unequal parts, which is a character Mr. E. has not ob- 

 served in this China one ; nor has he observed that it is of a remarkable fine red 

 in the autumn, as indeed many of the sumachs are ; whereas Kaempfer gives a 

 very poetical description of the striking red of this wild varnish at that season. 

 Dr. Kaempfer, in the account he gives of his sitz-dsj'u, or true varnish-tree, 

 takes notice of the efTect of its poisonous exhalations ; which reminds Mr. E. 

 that this China rhus, when first it began to extend its leaves in the small stove, 

 had so remarkably a disagreeable smell, that he frequently complained of getting 

 the head-ach and a sickness at his stomach by remaining too long near it ; and 

 after it was removed into the great stove, where, notwithstanding that building 

 was very spacious, and near 20 feet high, yet, as it grew most luxuriantly, one 

 could not without pain continue long near it. He measured one of the whole 

 great leaves of this tree in the summer 1755, and it was above 3 feet in length. 

 He supposed, as it is a native of Nankin, where the winters are cold, it thrives 

 well m the open air, as it does in the physic garden at Chelsea ; where it throws 

 out a great number of suckers. 



