WEEDS OF THE SUMAC FAMILY. 



95 



wood and roots. It is insoluble in water and cannot be washed 

 from the skin with it alone. The best remedy for the poison is an 

 alcoholic solution of sugar of lead. This is made by taking a small 

 bottle of alcohol and putting in it as much of the powdered sugar 

 of lead as it will dissolve The milky fluid should then be rubbed 



into the affected skin three or four 

 times daily. A water solution of su- 

 gar of lead w r ill do no good and the 

 alcoholic solution should never be 

 taken internally as it is a deadly 

 poison. 



Because the poison ivy is a vine of 

 handsome foliage it is sometimes al- 

 lowed to grow or is even transplanted 

 about dwellings and parks. From 

 the woodbine or Virginia creeper, also 

 an ornamental vine with 5 leaflets, it 

 can be at once told by having only 3 

 leaflets. Any woody vine or low 

 climbing shrub with 3 leaflets should 

 at once be destroyed. Remedies : 

 grubbing and burning, handling the 

 parts only with hoe or fork, or em- 

 Fig. 61. a, spray showing aerial rootlets and ploying men wllO are immune to do 

 leaves; b, clusters of fruit. (After Chesnut.) ,-, _ i 



In the tamarack and other marshes of northern Indiana the 

 second poisonous sumac (R. vernix L.) grows in abundance. It is 

 a tall shrub or small tree with pinnate leaves of 7 to 13 leaflets and 

 is, if anything, more poisonous than the 3-leaved ivy. The same 

 remedy will cure the poison 



TUB MALLOW FAMILY. MALVACEyK. 



Herbs or shrubs with alternate stipulate leaves. Flowers reg- 

 ular, perfect, often large and showy; sepals 5, united at base, often 

 with a whorl of bractlets beneath the true calyx ; petals 5, usually 

 twisted in the bud ; stamens numerous, united at base and con- 

 nected with the base of the petals; ovaries several, arranged in a 

 ring or forming a several-celled capsule. 



A small family of innocent plants, possessing a mucilaginous 

 juice, tough bark and having the flower stalks axillary and usually 

 with a joint They are easily known by having the bases of the 

 stamens united in a tube which surrounds the pistils. The holly- 



