ANACARDIACEiE— SUMACH FAMILY 



SMOOTH SUMACH. SCARLET SUMACH 



Rhiis glabra. 



Rhus is by some referred to a Celtic word meaning red ; 

 others derive it from the Greek word meaning run, be- 

 cause the roots spread underground to a considerable dis- 

 tance from the trunk ; still others refer it to a Greek word 

 which indicates its value medicinally. Sumach is derived 

 from Simaq, the Arabic name of the plant. 



Low growing, spreading, with irregular branches and rather 

 unshapely form ; rarely becoming a small tree ; the twigs and 

 branchlets glabrous and more or less glaucous. Found in dry- 

 soil from Nova Scotia to British Columbia and south to Florida, 

 Mississippi, and Arizona. Foliage sometimes used for tanning. 



Leaves. — Alternate, pinnately compound, eight to fifteen 

 inches long ; leaflets eleven to thirty-one, sessile, lanceolate or 

 oblong-lanceolate, three to five inches long, on a large smooth 

 stalk, round and often oblique at base, serrate, acuminate at 

 apex, rachis not winged ; when full grown are dark green 

 above, whitish beneath ; in autumn they turn a brilliant scarlet 

 and orange. 



Flowers. — June to August. Polygamo - dioecious, small, 

 green, borne in densely flowered terminal spikes. Calyx five- 

 cleft, persistent ; corolla, of five petals, imbricate in the bud ; 

 stamens five, inserted on a disk ; ovary one, and styles three. 



Fruit. — Drupe, small, one-seeded, sub-globose, red, covered 

 with short, crimson, acid hairs ; borne in dense terminal spikes. 



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