I'EREDIXTIIACEJ-:. 299 



is used in America as a refrigerative. It is especially employed lor 

 the preparation of a drink prescribed in cases of phléfgmasy. From 

 its incised bark flows a lactescent juice, soon solidifying in an acrid 

 gum-resin called Papaw juice. The R. Vcrniv^ a tree from Japan, 

 China, and India (wrongly confounded with the Ailantus ffkmdulosa, 

 under the common denomination of Japanese varnish), has also a 

 whitish juice darkening on exposiire to the air, and which, dissolved 

 in a siccative oil, is used to prepare a black varnish. It is said to 

 be poisonous, like a closely allied species, native of North America, 

 H. venenata,^ also fm-nishing a varnish and a wax compared to 

 that of R. succedanea.^ This is well known in Japan for the wax 

 it produces, analogous to that of bees, although softer, and used hi 

 that country for the same purposes, particularly the manufacture of 

 candles. The berries are boiled in water and then submitted to the 

 action of a press which extracts this kind of tallow, imported for 

 some years past into England.* In Mexico the R. copalUnum * has 

 been considered to yield the Copal of that country ; it gives a gum- 

 resin, but very different from that matter, and is more known for its 

 astringent roots, and the use made by the Indians of its leaves as 

 tobacco, and the oil of its berries as anti-hemorrhoidal. The most 

 dangerous species of this genus are R. radicans^ and Toxico- 

 dendroti'' of North America, extremely acrid, contact with which, 

 and even its exhalations, produce, in the warm season, redden- 

 ing of the skin, a swelling which is sometimes considerable, and an 

 inflammation that may be very serious. Inwardly the leaves and 



1 L. Mat. Mid. 131.— Thunb. Fl. Jap. 121 Med. But. iii. t. 42.— GuiB. loc. cit. 487.— 



(necal.). — R.jiiglandifoliHmWhiA..— R.ver>nci- Duham. Arbr. éd. 2, ii. t. 48. — Bot. Mag. t. 



fera DO. Piodr. ii. 68, n. W.—Hitz, Sitz dyu, 1806.— Nees, P/. Med. iii. t. 35i.—To.ricodt'ii- 



Urus, K.EMPr. Amœn. 791, ic. dron vulgaie Mill. — T. vohibile Mill. {Lierre 



■ DC. Prodr. n. 21.— Dill. Elth. t. 292.— du Canada). 



LiNDL. Fl. Med. 284.— iî. Veniix L. Spec. 380. < L. Spec. 3S1. Michx. Fl. Bar. -Amer. i. 



— BiGEL Med. Bot. i. 96, t. 10 {Poison Ash, 182. — Pl'rsh, Fl. Bar.- Amir. i. 205. — DC. 



Poison-imod, Poison-tree, Poisou-Siimach). Prodr. n. 26. — Bull. PI. Ten. 334. — Gum. np. 



3 L. Maiitiss. 221.— Thunb. Fl. Jap. 121.— eit. 488, fig. 702.— Pereiba, Flem. Mat. Med. 



DC. Prodr. n. 19.— Guib. op. cit. iii. 489.— ed. 4, ii. p. ii. 377.— Lindl. Fl. Med. 285.— 



EosENTH. op. cit. 852. — Fasi no ki Kjempf. Nees. PI. Med. iii. t. 853. — Rev. in Bot. Méd. 



Amœn. 794, ic. du xix' Siècle, iii. 359.— Moa. Bot. Méd. 450.— 



* It is i'lssible that certain species allied to Berg, et Schmidt, Burst. Off. Gew. t. 16 d. — 



this one, an, also used in Japan for the extrac- Eosenth. op. cit. 852. — Toxicodendron puhesmis 



tion of an analogous wax. Mill. {Trailing poison Oak des Amer. Arbre à 



5 L. Spec. 380.- Jaco. Hort. Sdiœnbr. t. 341. la gale, à la puce, A.-poi.mn). Perhaps a variety 

 —DC. Prodr. n. 14.— Rosenth. op. cit. 851. of the preceding species. 



6 L. Spec. 381.— DC. Prodr. n. 25.— Bigel. 



