134 TREES OF NEW ENGLAND. 



ANACAKDIACE,E. SUMAC FAMILY. 

 Rhus typhina, L. 



Rhus hirta, Sudw. 

 STAGHORN SUMAC. 



Habitat and Range. In widely varying soils and localities; 

 river banks, rocky slopes to an altitude of 2000 feet, cellar- 

 holes and waste places generally, often forming copses. 



From Nova Scotia to Lake Huron. 



Common throughout New England. 



South to Georgia ; west to Minnesota and Missouri. 



Habit. A shrub, or small .tree, rarely exceeding 25 feet in 

 height ; trunk 8-10 inches in diameter ; branches straggling, 

 thickish, mostly crooked when old ; branchlets forked, straight, 

 often killed at the tips several inches by the frost ; head very 

 open, irregular, characterized by its velvety shoots, ample, 

 elegant foliage, turning in early autumn to rich yellows and 

 reds, and by its beautiful, soft-looking crimson cones. 



Bark. Bark of trunk light brown, mottled with gray, 

 becoming dark brownish-gray and more or less rough-scaly 

 in old trees ; the season's shoots densely covered with velvety 

 hairs, like the young horns of deer (giving rise to the com- 

 mon name), the pubescence disappearing after two or three 

 years ; the extremities dotted with minute orange spots which 

 enlarge laterally in successive seasons, giving a roughish 

 feeling to the branches*- 



Winter Buds and Leaves. Buds roundish, obtuse, densely 

 covered with tawny wool, sunk within a large leaf-scar. 

 Leaves pinnately compound, 1-2 feet long ; stalk hairy, 

 reddish above, enlarged at base covering the axillary bud ; 

 leaflets 11-31, mostly in opposite pairs, the middle pair 

 longest, nearly sessile except the odd one, 2-4 inches long ; 

 dark green above, light and often downy beneath; outline 

 narrow to broad-oblong or broad-lanceolate, usually serrate, 



