
PLANTS GROWING IN DRY SOIL. 261 
folium. The leaves might readily be mistaken for those of a 
young maple tree, while the blossoms, or beautiful fruit, pro- 
test loudly against such an error. 
V. prunifolium, black-haw, or stag-bush, has almost identical 
blossoms with the above which grow in compound sessile 
cymes; and dark blue glaucous fruit, quite sweet and edible. 
The leaves are bluntly oval, glossy and serrated. It isa tall 
shrub from eight to twelve feet high, of hard reddish-brown 
wood and is found blossoming early in the season from Connectt- 
cut to Florida and westward to Texas. 
V. alnifolium, page 188, Plate XCIX. V. Opulus, page 118. 
POISON IVY. POISON OAK. 
Rhiis radicans. 
FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 
Sumac. White, tinged with Scentless. Maine southward to May, June. 
green, or yellow. Llorida and westward. 
Flowers: small; axillary; perfect ; growing in loose panicles. Fyzzt: clus- 
tered; a small whitish berry. Zeaves: divided into three ovate leaflets ; 
serrated ; sometimes downy underneath. Sev: climbing by means of rootlets. 
It is no mark of genius to avoid poison ivy after one has had 
a bad case of poisoning ; but it isa wise precaution to acquaint 
oneself with the plant and then to be content to admire it from 
a distance. Like many poisonous plants it is not equally in- 
jurious to all persons or forms of life. The goat, the mule 
and the horse have an especial fondness for eating it; and its 
seeds are distributed through the agency of crows and wood- 
peckers that relish them keenly. It is thought to be the least 
harmful when the full blaze of the sun is shining on the leaves. 
In almost any kind of soil it will thrive, and it has some 
appreciation of decorative effects. It covers old stone walls, 
clumps of trees, traverses the open meadows, and finds its way 
to the roadside banks. Jack Frost is its greatest enemy, and 
the first cool days of autumn change its green leaves to many 
tints of yellow and crimson. 
R. Toxicodéndron is peculiar tothe Southern states. Its lobed 
leaflets are very pubescent, 

