THE ROSE TRIBE. 113 



it looks like a silken plume springing out of the cup 

 of the calyx, and as it waves about in the wind one 

 may almost fancy it a tuft of feathers accidentally 

 fastened to the flower-stalk. A botanical examina- 

 tion dispels the illusion, and shews that the appear- 

 ance is caused by the carpels having preserved their 

 styles, which become very long and are covered all 

 over with loose silky hair, which has grown since 

 they were young. A similar phaenomenon occurs in 

 the Virgins boiver (Clematis), and in the Pasqueflower 

 (Anemone) ; but the most remarkable instance of the 

 production of hairs so as to change the whole ap- 

 pearance of a part, is met with in the Venetian Sumach 

 (Rhus Cotinus), which the French call Arbre a per- 

 ruque or the Wig Tree. You have perhaps seen this 

 plant, which is by no means uncommon in shrubbe- 

 ries, " shaking its hoary locks" at you as the breeze 

 waved the branches, and set the wigs in motion, in 

 the midst of a crowd of blood-stained leaves ; if you 

 have not, I would advise you to seek for it in the 

 autumn, at which season only it wears its wig ; in the 

 spring and summer it does not want it and will not put 

 it on. The explanation of its strange appearance I 

 cannot give better than in the words of Professor De 

 Candolle. " The panicle (that is the cluster of 

 flowers) of Rhus Cotinus is almost entirely smooth at 

 the flowering season ; after that period all the flower- 

 stalks which bear fruit, continue to remain smooth 

 or scarcely downy ; but, on the contrary, on those 

 whose fruit is not formed, and they constitute the 

 greatest number, there appears a great quantity of 



