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fairly common here and there throughout the lowlands, and 

 resembling in its general characters the familiar sumachs of the 

 continental United States. Its most remarkable feature is its 

 geographical distribution, which affords one more clue to the 

 primitive floral connections of Hawaii with southwestern Asia. 

 The semi-alate sumach extends from the mountains of the Hi- 

 malayas to the mountains of Hawaii. 



The sumach family, Anacardiaceae, comprises 58 genera and 

 about 420 species. It is mostly tropical, with Malaya as the 

 largest center of distribution. There are a few extra-tropical 

 genera, of which Kims is typical. The family is represented in 

 Hawaii by a single endemic variety and seven or more introduced 

 species. The latter include the mango tree; the wi, Spondias 

 dulcis; the Tahiti apple, Spondias lutea; the cashew nut, Anacar- 

 dium occidentale; Semecarpus anacardium; the pepper tree, 

 SchiniLS molle; and the Christmas-berry tree, Schinus terebini- 

 f alius. 



Rhus is the largest genus of the family and includes 120 species 

 and subspecies. It is most abundant in South Africa, but also 

 occurs throughout the world. Several species are native to the 

 Fiji and the Society Islands. The Japanese sumach, Rhus vernix, 

 has been introduced recently into Hawaii. The foliage and bark 

 of most species are rich in tannin and are used for tanning leather. 

 Certain oriental species yield lacquer and vegetable wax. Ha- 

 waii is extremely fortunate in having no poisonous rhuses in her 

 flora; poison ivy is unknown. It is noteworthy that there are 

 no plants in the Hawaiian flora that are poisonous to the touch 



The Hawaiian sumach is Rhus semialata Murray var sand- 

 wicensis Engler. The species is a small tree, indigenous to the 

 Himalaya Mountains, at 3,000-6,000 ft. The variety, which is 

 endemic to the Hawaiian group, differs from the species only in 

 having the rachis of the leaf 7iot winged. The species is not 

 known in the other islands of Polynesia. A query may be raised 

 as to whether the uniformly wingless condition of the Hawaiian 

 variety is of varietal or specific status. It is difficult to ex- 

 plain the presence of this tree in the Hawaiian islands. The 

 primitive Hawaiians knew it by the name of nenleau or neleau. 



