STUDIES OF PLANT LIFE 
Butron-BusH—Cephalanthus occidentalis (L.). 
A pretty shrub about five feet high, belonging to the 
Rubiacee or Madder family, with light green smooth leaves, 
and round heads of closely set whitish-green flowers. The 
corolla is tubular, slender; style thready and protruding 
beyond the petals. The flowers have a sweet, faint perfume. 
This shrub is chiefly found in low thickets on the borders of 
swamps. The receptable remains persistent on the bush in 
dry round button-like heads, whence its common name. I 
am not acquainted with any particular qualities possessed 
by this shrub. It flowers in August. 
Porson Ivy—Porson OAK—POISON ELDER—Rhus 
Toxicodendron (L.). 
The Sumac family boasts of two of the most poisonous 
vegetables yet known in Canada, viz., Rhus venenata or 
Poison Sumac, and Rhus Toxicodendron or Poison Ivy. 
The former, Rk. venenata (DC.), is an elegant shrub, growing 
in swamps, with shining smooth odd-pinnate leaves, and 
from ten to fifteen feet high, producing when touched a 
violent sort of erysipelas, in some cases fatal in its effects. 
The leaflets, from seven to thirteen, oval, entire, pointed; 
the flowers, small, insignificant, greenish, in loose panicles 
from the axils of the upper leaves; berries green, smooth, 
of the size of peas. This is spoken of as the most deadly 
of the poisonous sumacs, but fortunately it is of rare 
occurrence. The common Poison Ivy, however, is only too 
frequently met with; it grows in low ground or on barren 
rocky islands, among wild herbs and grasses, in open 
thickets, at the roots of stumps, and will often find its way 
into our gardens. It may be found in cultivated fields, 
flourishing on stone heaps—indeed, wherever its roots can 
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