THE SUMAC FAMILY 



ANACARDIACE^ Lindley 



I HIS family consists of about 50 genera comprising some 500 species 

 of trees or shrubs and a few woody climbers, natives of temperate 

 and tropical regions, but most abundant in the latter. They are 

 noted for their acrid, resinous or milky juices which render them of 

 varied economic value, in medicine, in the art of tanning, and the manufacture 

 of varnishes, mastic, Japanese lacquer and other resins being products of members 

 of this family. Edible tropical fruits in great variety are also produced by these 

 plants, among the best known being the Mango and Spanish prune; Cashew nuts 

 are a dry nut-hke oily fruit remarkable for being surmounted on a large pear- 

 shaped fleshy peduncle which when fully ripe is juicy and also edible; the fruit is 

 roasted and eaten like peanuts. The Pepper tree of western South America, so 

 much planted in California for ornament and shade, is Schinus molle Linnaeus, 

 its numerous bright red aromatic fruits being a substitute for pepper. This plant 

 seems destined to become naturalized on the Pacific coast. 



The AnacardiacecE have alternate, simple or compound leaves without punctate 

 dots and without stipules. The inflorescence is spicate, racemose or paniculate, 

 with regular, rarely perfect, mostly polygamous flowers, their calyx of 3 to 7 slightly 

 united sepals; petals as many as and alternate with the sepals, imbricated or rarely 

 valvate; stamens as many or twice as many as there are petals, rarely otherwise, 

 inserted at the base of the disk, their filaments free; anthers introrse, usually ver- 

 satile; ovary in the staminate flowers i-celled, in the pistillate i-celled or some- 

 times 4- to 5-celled, usually free; styles united or distinct, terminal or lateral; 

 stigmas entire; ovules sohtary. Seeds without endosperm; cotyledons fleshy. 

 Our genera are: 



Leaves always compound. 

 Drupe broader than long. 



Drupe densely hairy; stone smooth. 

 Drupe smooth; stone ribbed. 

 Drupe somewhat elongated, not flattened. 

 Leaves usually simple (occasionally 3-foliolate in No. 4). 

 Drupe flattened, hairy; stone roughened. 

 Drupe not flattened, smooth. 



Drupe 4 mm. long; stone smooth; native southern tree or shrub. 

 Drupe 10 to 12.5 cm. long; stone covered with long, coarse fibers; intro- 

 duced tropical fruit tree. 



1. Rhus. 



2. Toxicodendron. 



3. Metopium. 



4. Neostyphonia. 



5. Colinus. 



6. Mangijera. 



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