The Sumachs and the Smoke Tree 



The Japanese lacquer tree (Rhus vernicifera, DC.) exceeds all 

 other species in value; its sap is the black varnish used in making 

 lacquered wares. Each year about 1 30,000 gallons of this valuable 

 substance are gathered in Japan and China. Each little tree 

 yields but a few ounces, and is killed by the draining process. 

 The acrid juice of R. Vernix, our poison sumach, is milky and 

 turns black on exposure to the air, forming a substance very 

 much like the lacquer varnish. 



Staghorn Sumach, Hairy Sumach {Rhus hirta, Sudw.) — 

 A low, flat-topped tree, 30 to 35 feet high, with branches stout, 

 erect, forked many times, and densely velvety. Bark smooth, 

 brown; hair on branches soft, long, and changing from pink to 

 green the first year; later, dark, short; shed the third or fourth 

 year. JVood light, coarse, soft, brittle, but satiny when polished, 

 green streaked with orange. Buds pointed, in summer covered 

 by leaf base, in winter almost buried. Leaves pinnate; leaflets 

 II to 3 1 , narrow, pointed, serrate, dark green above, pale to white 

 beneath; velvety; autumn colours scarlet, orange and purple. 

 Flowers, June, inconspicuous, greenish, in dense, conical, hairy 

 clusters, the two sorts on separate trees. Fruit tiny, globular 

 acid drupes, densely hairy, red, in large, compact panicles, which 

 remain through the winter. Preferred habitat, uplands and 

 gravelly banks. Distribution, southern Canada to Winnipeg; 

 south to Georgia and Mississippi. Uses : Planted as an orna- 

 mental for its foliage and fruit. Wood used for walking sticks, 

 and for inlaying boxes, tabourettes and other fancy articles. 

 Twigs used as pipes to draw maple sap from the trees. 



This largest of Northern sumachs is constantly seen on 

 railroad embankments, in fence rows, and along the highways 

 of wooded regions. In the summer its fern-like foliage covers 

 all the ugliness of the most unsightly bank, and lifts among the 

 green its fine clusters of ruddy or pink blossoms. In the fall 

 these are lost sight of amid the glory of the leaves, which turn 

 to all shades of orange and purple and red. For weeks they 

 flame and glow in the soft autumn sunshine, then fade and fall, 

 and the bare antlered branches, like candelabra, hold aloft the 

 pointed red fruit clusters which burn on with gradual abatement 

 to the middle of winter. 



The glory of the staghorn sumach's colouring makes it one 

 of the most desirable of ornamental trees for fall and winter 



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