AILANTHUS FAMILY 



the sunlight and you will have a bouquet with a color scheme 



rarely equalled. 



The mature leaf is often three feet long, with many pairs of 



leaflets, and one leaflet at the end. Normally, there should 

 be a terminal leaflet, actually, it is often 

 wanting ; this, too, is common in pinnately 

 compound leaves ; the Black Walnut and the 

 Butternut are often evenly, instead of oddly, 

 pinnate ; the terminal leaflet aborts. 



The young Ailanthus and the Sumach may 

 easily be mistaken for each other, but a mo- 

 ment's careful observation is sufficient to 

 mark the dift'erence between them. The 

 growing shoot and last year's wood of the 

 Sumach are velvety, while those of the Ail- 

 anthus are smooth. The margin of the 

 Ailanthus leaflet is entire save a tooth or 

 two at the base, the Sumach leaflet is ser- 

 rate all along the margin. The under side 

 of the Sumach leaflet is whitish, the Ailan- 

 thus pale green. But autumn tells the story 

 unmistakably, the Ailanthus leaf either turns 

 a lemon yellow throughout its length or drops 

 unchanged, the Sumach glows in scarlet and 

 orange ere it parts from the parent stem. 

 The Ailanthus is short-lived ; the trunk 



soon becomes hollow, and a tree two and a half or three feet 



in diameter, having every appearance of health and vigor, 



will go down before a strong wind only to disclose the fact 



that it was simply a shell. 



An Ailanthus and a 

 Sumach Leaflet. 



49 



