CHAP. XXXVII 



ANACARDIA^CE^. ItHU'S. 



553 



Engravings. Dill. Elth., t. 292. ; Wats. Dend. Brit, 1. 19.'; Big. Med. Bot.,1. t. 19. ; and our Jig. 226 



Spec. Char., Sj-c. Leaf rather glabrous than pubescent, of 5 — 6 pairs of leaflets, 

 and the odd one, which are ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, entire, and beneath 

 reticulately veined. (Dec. Prod., ii. p. 68.) A native of North America, 

 from Canada to Carolina, and commonly called there poison sumach, or 

 poison wood. The drupe is white, and the nut furrowed. (Ibid.) 



Description, fyc. In its native country, this species is a shrub or low tree, 

 growing to the height of 20 ft. ; but it does not grow so vigorously in British 

 gardens, probably from not being sufficiently attended to in regard to soil, 

 which ought to be kept very moist, as the name swamp sumach implies. The 

 leaves are divided like those of R. typhina and R. glabra; but they are 

 quite different from those of both kinds in being smooth, shining, and having 

 the leaflets very entire, narrow, and pointed, and the veins of a purplish red 

 colour. There is a plant in the garden of the London Horticultural Society, 

 which, in 1834, was 4 ft. high, after being 5 years planted. There are also 

 plants of the same species in the arboretum of Messrs. Loddiges. The leaves 

 die off of an intense red or purple; and are, in the autumn season, strikingly 

 beautiful. This species is a native of 

 swamps in Virginia, Carolina, Pennsyl- 

 vania, and New England; and it is also 

 said to be a native of Japan. 



The milkyjuice stains linen a dark brown. 

 The whole shrub is in a high degree U/y 

 poisonous ; and the poison is communi- 

 cated by touching or smelling any part of 

 it. In forty-eight hours, inflammation ap- 

 pears on the skin, in large blotches, prin- 

 cipally on the extremities, and on the 

 glandulous parts of the body : soon after, 

 small pustules rise in the inflamed parts, 

 and fill with watery matter, attended with 

 burning and itching. In two or three 

 days, the eruptions suppurate ; after which 

 the inflammation subsides. Some persons 

 are incapable of being poisoned with this 

 plant ; but those who are of unstable habits 

 are more likely to receive it. According to Kalm, an incision being made, 

 a whitish yellow juice, which has a nauseous smell, comes out between 

 the bark and the wood : it is noxious to some persons, but does not in 

 the least affect others. On Kalm himself it had no effect, except once, on 

 a hot day, when, being in some perspiration, he cut a branch, and carried it 

 in his hand for half an hour, smelling it now and then. It produced a violent 

 itching in his eyelids and the parts thereabouts. During a week, his eyes were 

 very red, and the eyelids very stiff, but the disorder went off by washing the 

 parts in very cold water. (Mart. Mill.) In British gardens, this species is not 

 very common ; but it well deserves culture, on account of the beauty of its 

 smooth shining foliage at all seasons, and of its almost unparalleled splendour 

 in the autumn, from the time that the leaves begin to change colour, till they 

 ultimately drop off with the first frost. We would recommend that the plant 

 should always have a label attached to it, indicating the poisonous qualities of 

 the leaves, even when touched or smelled to. Plants, in the London nur- 

 series, are 1*. 6d. each, seeds 2s. an ounce ; at Boliwyller, 1 franc and 50 

 cents a plant ; and at New York, 50 cents a plant. 



& 8. R. Coria v ria Lin. The hide-tanning Rhus, or the Elm-leaved Sumach, 



Identification. Lin. Spec, 379. ; Dec. Prod., 2. p. 67. ; Don's Mill., 2. p. 70. 



Derivation. The specific name of Coriaria was given to this plant from the use made of it by the 



Turks in tanning leather ; and it was also a name of the Tihiis among the Romans, from the 



same qualify. 



