anacardiacejE. 67 



Rockj woods ; not common. April. Shrub, 4 to 10 feet high, covered with sharp 

 rtrong prickles. Leaves and flowers axillary. Flowers small greenish appearing 

 before the leaves. Bark and pods very pungent to the taste, Medicinal. 



2. PTELEA. Linn. Shrubby Trefoil. 



Flowers polygania-dicecious. Sepals 3 to 5, smalL 

 Petals 3 to 5, much longer than the sepals. Stamens 3 

 to 5, longer than the petals, and alternate with them. Ovary 

 2-celled; style short; stigmas 2. Fruit a 2-celled samara, 

 winged all round, nearly orbicular. Shrubs, with 3 to b-fo- 

 liate leaves and greenish-white small flowers in compound ter- 

 minal cymes. 



P. TRIFOLIATA, L. Shrubby Trefoil. 



Leaves on long petioles, ternats ; Uaflets ovate, pointed, downy when young, odd 

 one much attenuated at base; flowers polygamous, mostly with 4 stamens. 



Moist woods and rocky places ; rare. June. An ornamental shrub 6 to 8 feet 

 high. Flowers white, odorous, nearly % inch in diameter. Sam era nearly 1 inch 

 in diameter. 



The AiLANTnrs glandulosus, or Tree of Heaven, is a cultivated tree of this 

 family, common in and around our villages, whose flowers are redolent of anything 

 but "airs from heaven." 



Order 31. ANACARDIACEiE. 



Trees or shrubs, with a resinous gummy, caustic or milky juice, dofless, alternate, 

 timple, ternats or pinnate leaves, and small of ten polygamous, regular pentandrous 

 /lowers. Flowers terminal or axillary, with bracts, commonly dioecious. Sepals 

 3 to 5, united at base, persistent. Petals 3 to 5, sometimes none, imbricate. Ovary 

 1-cellcd, 1-ovuled. Styles 3, or none. Stigmas 3. Fruit indehiscent, usually 

 drupaceous. Seeds without albumen. 



1. RHUS. Linn. Sumach. 



Calxy of 5 sepals, united at base. Petals 5. Stamens 

 5, equal, inserted on the disk. Styles 3. short. Stigmas 

 capitate. Fruit a small-seeded sub-globose, dry drupe. — 

 Small trees or shrubs, sometimes climbing by rooting tendrils , 

 alternate, mostly compound leaves, and greenish-white flowers. 



* Not prisonous ; fruit clothed with (acid) crimson hairs: panicle compound, dens*, 

 terminal; leaves odd pinnate. 



1. R. glabra, L. Smooth Sumach. 



Stem and branches smooth; leaflets 6 to 15 pairs, sessile, lanceolate, acuminate, 

 Bmooth, whitish glaucous beneath; flowers all perfect. 



Old fields and thickets; common. July. Shrub 6 to 15 feet high, consisting of 

 'many straggling branches, smooth except its point. Leaflets about 3 inches long, 

 $4 inches wide. Flowers greenish-yellow. Fruit crimson, covered with 6hort 

 flairs, acid, used for dyeing red. The bark is used for tanning morocco. 



