232 ECONOMIC BOTANY OF ALABAMA 



ANACARDIACEAE. Sumac or Cashew Family. 



About ()() i^enera and 400 s]iecies. trees. .shrul)s and vines, 

 mostly tnii)ical. Some are cultivated for ornament, some have 

 edible fruit (e.g.. mango and cashew), some are medicinal, and 

 some poisonous. 



COTINUS, Adanson. (SmokE-trkes). 



Cotinus Americanus, Xutt. (RJiiis cotiiwides. Nutt.) 



"Ciiittim-wood"* (Yellow-wood. ) 



(Figs. 58-Gl) 



A small irregular tree, usually six or eight inches in diameter 

 and about twenty feet tall, with brownish scaly bark and simple 

 leaves. The flowers are small, in feathery clusters, and appear in 

 spring, about the time the leaves are full grown. The whole plant 

 is pervaded with a sumac odor, and it was formerly classed as one 

 of the sumacs (Rhus). The branches break or split off very read- 

 ily, and it is unusual to find a tree, either wild or cultivated, with- 

 out long scars on the trunk from this cause. 



Like the south European smoke-tree or Venetian sumac (Rhus 

 Cotinus), which it closely resembles, this is sometimes cultivated 

 for ornament, more as a curiosity than anything else, for it is not 

 particularly handsome. Although this is one of the rarest trees in 

 North America, its wood is or has been used for one of the com- 

 monest purposes, namely, fuel. I saw a whole wagon-load of it, 

 cut into stove lengths, in the streets of Huntsville in the spring of 

 190(J. but I was informed that it was not usually burned alone, but 

 mixed with other woods. Its price was about the same as that of 

 any other stove-wood. But as it grows in places which are al- 

 most impossible of cultivation, it is not likely to be exterminated 

 very soon. The heart-wood is dark and very durable, and is said 

 to have l>een used for fence-posts. An orange dye can be extracted 

 from it, and this fact is said to have caused the destruction of the 

 most accessible trees during the Civil War.f 



*There seems to be a widespread belief among the people of Madison 

 County that this is identical with the "shittim wood" of the ancient He- 

 brews, but that is quite unfounded. Our tree does not even belong to the 

 same family, and it is confined to the United vStates. 



tSee Sargent's Silva, 3:4. 1892. 



