RHUS SUMAC. 117 



Constituents.— The leaves contain tannic and gallic acids, the fruit a 

 soft acrid resin, and the bark a peculiar resin and the alkaloid berberine. 



Preparations. — None are official. The fluid extract and tincture occur 

 as commercial articles and afford eligible modes of administration. It 

 may also lie .employed in infusion. 



Medical Properties and Uses. — Ptelea owes what little importance it 

 possesses to its bitter tonic properties, and these are doubtless owing in a 

 great measure to the berberine present. Moreover, as this alkaloid exists 

 in the bark of the root in but small percentage, the drug cannot be con- 

 sidered very active. The other constituents of the plant, though somewhat 

 aromatic, are probably of little medicinal value. 



Like nearly all bitters, ptelea has been employed with success in inter- 

 mittents, but no one at the present day would think of relying upon it in 

 such cases. In convalescence and in atonic dyspepsia it may do the same 

 service as many other feeble tonics, by increasing the appetite and stimu- 

 lating the digestive functions. 



ANACARDIACE/E. 



Character of the Order. — Trees or shrubs, with a resinous or milky, often 

 caustic and poisonous juice, alternate, dotless, exstipulate leaves, and small, 

 inconspicuous, regular, pentandrous flowers, with a 1-celled ovary, bearing 

 a single suspended ovule, and haying 3 styles or stigmas. 



An order of strongly marked characteristics, comprising about one 

 hundred species, mostly indigenous to the tropics. Represented in North 

 America by three genera, namely, Pistacia, Schinus, and Rhus, the last- 

 named alone comprising medicinal species. 



RHUS.— Sumac. 



Character of the Genus. — Sepals 5, small, united at the base, persistent. 

 Petals 5, ovate, spreading, inserted under the margin of a flattened orbicu- 

 lar disk at the bottom of the calyx. Stamens 5, inserted in or under the 

 disk. Styles 3, distinct or united ; stigmas 3. Fruit a small dry drupe. 



Shrubs or small trees, with alternate, unequally pinnate leaves, and small 

 yellowish or greenish-white polygamous or polygamo-dicecious flowers. 



The genus may be divided into two sections, well-marked both as to 

 their structure and their properties. 



§ 1. Noii-poisonous Species. — Flowers polygamous, in a terminal thyr- 

 soid panicle. Fruit clothed with a dense coating of crimson hairs ; stone 

 smooth. Leaves unequally pinnate. 



Rhus glabra Linne. — Smooth Sumac. 



Description. — A smooth shrub, 2 to 12 feet high, the stem having a 

 large pith and a thin, white, woody layer. Leaflets in 5 to 15 pairs, with 



