SUMACH. 219 



appear in July, but seldom if ever ripen their 

 seeds in England. 



The Virginian sumach, rhus typhinum, is a 

 native of North America, as its name imports. 

 Parkinson is the oldest author who notices it 

 in this country : he tells us, in 1629, that it 

 was then " only kept as a rarity and orna- 

 ment to a garden and orchard." This species 

 of sumach was formerly called the Stag's-horn 

 tree, from the branches being shaped like 

 those of the stag's-horn, and like them 

 covered with a soft velvet-like down, which, 

 both in colour and texture, resemble that of 

 a young stag's-horn. 



This tree is both singular and beautiful, 

 the flowers being produced in close tufts at 

 the end of each branch, of a reddish purple 

 colour, in the shape of a spearhead. They 

 make their appearance in July, and are then 

 succeeded by the seed, which is inclosed in a 

 woolly succulent cover of a purple colour, 

 which has a good effect during the whole of 

 the autumnal months. 



The leaves are long, and elegantly pinnated 

 with six or seven pairs of leaflets, terminated 

 by an odd one, which hang in a most grace- 

 ful manner. The shrub grows from ten to 

 fifteen feet in height, and therefore should 

 fill a middle station in the shrubbery, between 



