VINES AND SHRUBS 



Leaves, sharply 3 to 5 - lobed, dotted, somewhat heart - shape, 

 doubly serrate. Fruit, nearly round, black, smooth (no prickles), 

 with a taste insipid, too sweet. Stem and branches free from 

 prickles. April and May. 



This species is cultivated, but is not so highly esteemed as 

 the red currant. Woods, rich banks, and alluvial soil, from 

 Virginia to Kentucky and northward. 



Fetid or Skunk Currant 

 R. prostrktum. — Flowers, in racemes. Branches and stem, low, 

 prostrate, without prickles or thorns. Leaves, 5 to 7-divided, 

 deeply toothed. Long, slender petioles. Pedicels and. fruit, bris- 

 tly and glandular. When bruised the plant gives out a fetid 

 odor. May and June. 



Cold, damp, rocky woods in all States east of the Rocky 

 Mountains. 



Red Currant 



R. <vulgkre. — This is the red currant of our gardens, which by 

 cultivation has become improved. It needs little description. 

 Flowers, greenish. Fruit, red, acid, in long, hanging racemes. 

 Leaves, 3 to 5-lobed, serrate, downy underneath, with whitish 

 veins when young. 



Found wild in cold swamps in New England and New 

 Jersey. From the dictionary we learn that the currant is 

 so called from the city of Corinth, in Greece, "whence, 

 probably, the small, dried grape (seedless raisin) was im- 

 ported, the ripe fruit receiving its name from its resemblance 

 to that fruit." 



Poison Ivy. Poison Oak. Mercury-vine 



Rhus Toxicodendron, — Family, Cashew. Color, greenish or 

 yellowish white. Leaves, of 3 variously shaped leaflets on a 

 common long petiole. The terminal leaflet is stalked; lateral leaf- 

 lets are generally sessile. They are broadly ovate, wavy-toothed, 

 pointed, often lobed. Sterile and fertile -flowers on different plants. 

 The former have 5 sepals and petals, the outer ones greenish, the 

 inner white, veined with purple. Stamens, 5. The pistillate flow- 

 ers have 5 greenish white sepals, and 5 yellowish white petals. 

 Fruit, a dull, whitish berry. Flowers, in loose panicles in the axils 

 of the leaves. June. 



This too well-known climbing shrub is gaining ground in 

 certain sections of the country. Formerly it was unknown 

 in New England, but now it infests many farms and roadsides 



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