3o6 



THE SUMAC FAMILY. 



THE SUMAC FAfllLY. 



Anaca rdia cecr. 

 Trees or shrubs mostly possessed of resmous or milky juice ^ and 

 which bear simple, or coi?ipound alternate, rarely opposite leaves; mainly 

 regular, perfect, or imperfect flowers and drupaceous fruits. 



Rhiis Michaiixi. {Plate XCVL) 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE 



Sumac. Crea7)ty or greenish Scentless. Georgia and 



•white. North Carolina. 



TIME OF BLOOM 



July. 

 Fruit: August^ September . 



A^-^'-^ ' 



Flowers : very small, 

 growing thickly in a dense 

 ~" panicle. Calyx : persist- 

 ~^-— en t, usually five-cleft. Pet- 

 als; spreading, imbricated 

 in the bud. Stamens: five. 

 Pistil: one; styles three. 

 Drupes: deep crimson, 

 one seeded and covered 

 with a velvety pubescence. Leaves : compound, with long petioles, 

 covered with a green or rusty scurf, odd-pinnate,with from seven to 

 thirteen lanceolate or ovate leaflets, short stalked, coarsely serrate, 

 smooth or nearly so on the upper surface and covered under- 

 neath with pubescence. A shrub one to three feet in height. 



More brilliant than the sourwood, vieing with the scarlet 

 maple and fairly overcoming the landscape with long bunches 

 of velvety crimson fruit and gloriously tinted foliage we hail 

 in the autumn this extraordinary genus of plants. Along the waysides, in 

 corners of abandoned fields and through open strips of woodlands, constantly 

 some one of them is found casting a rich, wine-red hue over florets already 

 blackened and pale sedges. 



In the field of usefulness they are also much sought ; for the tannin con- 

 tained in their bark and leaves and their milky juice, which in drying turns 

 almost black, is extensively used as a varnish. In fact it is from a species 

 of Rhus that the Japanese obtain their famous lacquer. 



Famous among them all is Rhus Michauxi, which for nearly or quite a 

 hundred years was completely lost to the world of science. It is but a few 

 years ago that it was rediscovered. 



R. glabra, smooth upland, or scarlet sumac, while being of somewhat the 

 same personality as the preceding species is strongly marked by its smooth- 

 ness. It is also glaucous. Again it bears its leaflets more numerously, 

 there being from fifteen to thirty-one of them in the leaves of well-grown 



