6i4 



Smoke Tree 



with small flowers, the panicles mostly composed, however, of capillary hairy 

 sterile flower-stalks, nearly of a smoke color, whence the popular name of the trees. 

 The American smoke tree, or Chittam-wood, occurs sparingly in rocky situa- 

 tions, preferring limestone, in Alabama, eastern Tennessee, Missouri, Kansas, the 



Indian Territory, and western Texas. It 

 attains a maximum height of about 12 

 meters, with a trunk diameter up to 4 dm. 

 Its branches spread widely. 



The thin bark is light gray, channelled 

 and scaly. The sap is resinous and un- 

 pleasantly odorous. The young twigs are 

 smooth, purpUsh, becoming green to 

 brown. The pointed buds are 3 or 4 mm. 

 long. The leaves are thin, oval to obo- 

 vate, S to 15 cm. long, their stalks 3 cm. 

 long or less; they are blimt or sometimes 

 notched at the apex, narrowed or some- 

 what wedge-shaped at the base, silky- 

 hairy on the imder side when yoimg, but 

 merely puberulent on the veins of the 

 under side when mature, dark green on 

 the upper side, paler green beneath, entire- 

 margined or a Uttle wavy. The flowers 

 are in large panicles at the ends of branches and open in April or May; most of 

 the panicle is made up of the sterile hairy flower-stalks, the flowers being few and 

 their stalks smooth; the staminate and pistillate flowers are produced by different 

 trees; there are bracts i to 1.5 cm. long among the flowers, but these fall away 

 before the fruit is mature; the calyx has 5 lobes and there are 5 oblong petals; 

 the flower-stalks are slender, usually 2 to 4 of them together at several places in 

 the panicle. The fruits are obliquely oblong, smooth, about 4 mm. long, their 

 slender stalks 5 to 8 cm. long. 



The wood is soft, orange-yellow, coarse-grained, durable, with a specific gravity 

 of about 0.64, and is locally used for fencing. The Old World smoke tree, Cotinus 

 Cotinus (Linnaeus) Sargent, the generic type, differs from our plant in its thicker, 

 more hairy leaves, which are roimded or blunt at the base. 



Fig. 563. — Smoke Tree. 



