480 FLOWERS OF FIELD, HILL, AND SWAMP 



The juice of the plant is thick and yellowish, becoming black 

 after being exposed to the air. It produces an exceedingly irri- 

 tating eruption upon the skin of persons susceptible to the rhus 

 poison, often dangerous and difficult to heal. Even of persons 

 who are "immune" to this poison, if the juice of the plant is 

 brought in contact with the blood, abscesses and painful sores 

 will almost certainly be produced. 



It should be rooted out with hoe and plough by every self- 

 respecting land-owner. 



25. Poison Dogwood, Poison Sumach 



R. venendta is the most poisonous plant of our country, and 

 it possesses, moreover, the fatal gift of beauty, often alluring 

 unsuspecting persons in the autumn to fill their arms with its 

 brilliantly colored leaves. Witli the swamp maple, it adds, 

 most of all plants, to the glory of the swamps. Insanity and 

 even fatal results have been known to follow the handling of 

 its branches. Many people are wholly immune to this plant's 

 evil effects, while others are poisoned simply by passing the 

 shrub. Especially if the pores of the skin are opened by per- 

 spiration, it is dangerous to stand near the poison-sumach. 

 Ignorance in such a case is culpable, and yet how few have 

 really taken pains to learn this common plant, growing by our 

 roadsides and along our favorite wood-paths ! A few simple 

 things are all that it is necessary to remember. First, the leaf- 

 stalks are red, with from 7 to 13 sessile, pointed, feather- 

 veined leaflets rather far apart from each other. Second, 

 the blossoms are a dull white, in loose panicles from the 

 leaf -axils, never terminal. Third, the fruit is a white, not 

 red, berry. Fourth, the bark is gray, and the height of the 

 shrub varies from 8 to 15 feet. Lastly, it grows in swampy 

 places. 



We have 3 species of harmless sumach among our finest 

 shrubs. Fertile and sterile flowers, frequently on different 

 plants. 



