Handbook of Trees of the N"ortiiebn States and Can 



.\.DA. 



309 



The Dwarf Sumach, as its name implies, is 

 a small ti-ee at best and much more commonly 

 a shrub than a tree; still it sometimes attains 

 the height of 25 or ,30 ft. with trunk 8 or 10 

 in. in diameter. Tliis is generally more or less 

 leaning and divided into a few large branches, 

 ultimately forming a wide spreading top. It 

 is an abundant species covering dry gravelly 

 slopes often to the exclusion of nearly every- 

 thing else. Its singular and beautiful leaves, 

 with rachises winged between the leaflets, give 

 it an individuality at once recognizable, and 

 its bunches of crimson fruit add not a little 

 to its ornamental value. In autuiim it is 

 brilliant in various tints of red and purple. 



The wood is light, a cubic foot weighing 

 32.80 lbs., soft and of a greenish brown color 

 with ligliter sap-wood. The bark and leaves 

 are rich in tannin and the fruit . similar in 

 jjroperties to that of the Stag-horn Sumacli. 



Lctii-vH deciduous, pinnate, 6-8 in. long-, with 

 pubescent petiole and rachis, tlie latter winj;cd 

 between the leaflets : leatlets ovate-lanceolat(^ to 

 oblong, subsessile, entire or remotely serrate 

 towards the apex, acute or acuminate, lustrous 

 dark green above, paler and pubescent beneath. 

 Flowers in midsummer, about Vs in. across, yellow- 

 green, in short dense pubescent terminal panicles. 

 4-6 in. long ; the pistillate considerably smalbM-. 

 Fruit in compact erect or nodding clusters, often 

 persisting on the branches through the entire 

 winter ; drupe about % in. across, compressed, 

 crimson, covered with short acid hairs ; stone 

 smooth. 



Var. laiiccolata, Gray, is a small tree of eastern 

 Texas with narrower and more falcate leaflets and 

 larger bunches of flow^ers and fruit. 



Var. Jcacaniha (.Tacq.i de C. is another form 

 found in Texas (near New Rraunfels) with white 

 flowers. 



1. A. W., XII, 279. 



