8o8 Handbook of Nature-Study 



folded tightly against itself; as the leaves unfold, they are olive-green 

 tinted with red, and look like tassels coming out around the old dark red 

 "bob." When the sumacs are in blossom, we see in every group of them, 

 two kinds; one with pyramids of white flowers, and the other with pinkish 

 callow bobs. The structure of these two different flower-clusters is really 

 the same, except that the white ones are looser and more widely spread.. 

 Each flower of the white panicle is staminate, and has five greenish, some- 

 what hairy sepals and five yellowish white petals, at the center of which are 

 five large anthers. A flower from the bob is quite different ; it has the five 

 hairy sepals alternating with five narrow, yellowish white petals, both 

 clasping the globular base, or ovary, which is now quite covered with pinkish 

 plush, and bears at its tip the three styles flaring into stigmas. 



The velvet sumac is larger than the smooth species 

 {Rhus glabra), and is easily distinguished from it, since 

 the new wood of the latter is smooth and covered with 

 bloom but is not at all velvety. The poison sumac, 

 which is very dangerous to many people when handled, 

 is a swamp species and its fruit is a loose, drooping panicle of 

 whitish berries, very much like that of poison ivy; therefore, 

 any sumac that has the red bob is not dangerous. The poison 

 a, Pistillaie Species has the edges of its leaflets entire and each leaflet has a 

 floifer from distinct petiole of its own where it joins the midrib. 

 a "bob." There is much tannin in sumac and it is used extensively to 



^'ow7r"from *^^ leather. The bobs are used for coloring a certain shade of 

 the greenish brown. The famous Japanese lacquer is made from the juice of 

 panicle. a Species of sumac. 



LESSON CCVI 

 The Velvet, or Staghorn, Sumac 



Leading thought — The sumac is a beautiful shrub in summer because of 

 its fern-like leaves ; it is picturesque in winter, and its colors in autumn are 

 most brilliant. Its dark red fruit clusters remain upon it during the entire 

 winter. In June it shows two kinds of blossoms on different shrubs, one is 

 whitish and bears the pollen, the other is reddish and is a pistillate flower, 

 later developing into the seed on the "bob," or fruit cluster. 



Method — Begin this study in October when the beautiful autumn color 

 of the leaves attracts the eye. Observations to be made in the field should 

 be outlined and should be answered in the field note-books. The study of 

 the fruit and leaf may be made in the schoolroom, and an interest should be 

 developed which will lead to the study of the interesting flowers the follow- 

 ing spring. The sumacs in autumn make a beautiful subject for water- 

 color sketches, and their peculiar method of branching with their dark red 

 seed clusters or bobs, make them excellent subjects for winter sketching. 



Observations — i. Why is this called the velvet sumac ? Why is it called 

 the staghorn sumac? Look at the stems with a lens and describe the 

 velvet. Can you tell this year's wood by the velvet? Is there any velvet 

 on last year's wood? Is there any on the wood below? What is there 

 peculiar in the appearance of last year's wood? What are the colors of the 

 hairs that make the velvet on this year's growth? On last year's growth? 

 What is the color of this year's growth under the velvet? Where are the 

 leaves borne? 



