SUMACH FAMILY 



In the spring the branches are loaded with early yel- 

 low flowers ; in summer the dark green foliage is clean 

 and bright ; in autumn it clothes itself in the red and 

 yellow of its race ; and in winter it becomes a little 

 gray bush speckled with small spikes of downy flower 

 buds that look like catkins. 



Rhus irilobata, the Ill-scented Sumach or Skunk 

 Bush is about the same size as the Fragrant Sumach. 

 The leaves are tri-foliate, leaflets sessile or nearly so, 

 puberulent when young, ovate or oval, obtuse, the ter- 

 minal one wedge-shaped at base, all crenately few- 

 lobed or toothed or sometimes entire ; unpleasantly 

 odorous. The flowers and fruit are very similar to 

 those of RJlus aroniatica. It is a western species rang- 

 ing from Illinois westward. 



SMOKE-TREE 



Cotinus cot inns. 



Cotmus is an ancient name of obscure meaning, without 

 significance in its present use. 



The Smoke-tree of our gardens is one of the most in- 

 teresting of cultivated plants, and is also one that has 

 been valued from very ancient times. Pliny describes 

 it as an Apennine shrub and Gerard records it as 

 growing in England in 1597= 



With us it vibrates between tree and shrub; some- 

 times reaching the height of twenty feet, again attain- 

 ing only five or six. The billowy masses of its fruiting 

 panicles attract attention and the plant is well known ; 

 in fact it would be difficult for it to remain unknown. 



The bloom is polygamo-dioecious ; the starainate 



90 



