138 TREES 



wares. The cultivated sumachs of southern Europe 

 are important in the tanning industry, their leaves con- 

 taining from twenty-five to thirty per cent, of tannic 

 acid. 



In the flora of the United States three genera of the 

 family have tree representatives. The genus Rhus, with a 

 total of one hundred and twenty species, stands first. 

 Most of these belong to South Africa; sixteen to North 

 America where their distribution covers practically the 

 entire continent. Of these, four attain the habit of small 

 trees. 



Fleshy roots, pithy branchlets, and milky, or sometimes 

 caustic or watery juice, belong to the sumachs, which are 

 oftenest seen as roadside thickets or fringing the borders of 

 woods. The foliage is fernlike, odd-pinnate, rarely simple. 

 The flowers are conspicuous by their crowding into termi- 

 nal or axillary panicles, followed by bony fruits, densely 

 crowded like the flowers. 



The Staghorn Sumach 



Rhus hirta, Sudw. 



The staghorn sumach is named for the densely hairy, 

 forking branchlets, which look much like the horns of a 

 stag "in the velvet." The foliage and fruit are also 

 densely clothed with stiff pale hairs, usually red or bright 

 yellow. 



The leaves reach two feet in length, with twenty or 

 thirty oblong, often sickle-shaped leaflets, set opposite on 

 the stem, and terminating in a single odd leaflet. Bright 

 yellow-green until half grown, dark green and dull above 



