AILANTHUS FAMILY 
the sunlight and you will have a bouquet witha c jlor scheme 
rarely equalled. 
The mature leaf is often three feet long, with many pairs of 
leaflets, and one leaflet at the end. Normally, there should 
An Ailanthus and a 
Sumach Leaflet. 
be a terminal leaflet, actually, it is often 
wanting ; this, too, is common in pinnately 
compound leaves; the Black Walnut and the 
Butternut are often evenly, instead of oddly, 
pinnate ; the terminal leaflet aborts. 
The young Ailanthus and the Sumach may 
easily be mistaken for each other, but a mo- 
ment’s careful observation is sufficient to 
mark the difference between them. The 
growing shoot and last year’s wood of the 
Sumach are velvety, while those of the Ail- 
anthus are smooth. The margin of the 
Ailanthus leaflet is entire save a tooth or 
two at the base, the Sumach leaflet is ser- 
rate all along the margin. The under side 
of the Sumach leaflet is whitish, the Ailan- 
thus pale green. But autumn tells the story 
unmistakably, the Ailanthus leaf either turns 
a lemon yellow throughout its length or drops 
unchanged, the Sumach glows in scarlet and 
orange ere it parts from the parent stem. 
The Ailanthus is short-lived; the trunk 
soon becomes hollow, and a tree two and a half or three feet 
in diameter, having every appearance of health and vigor, 
will go down before a strong wind only to disclose the fact 
that it was simply a shell. 
