VINES AND SHRUBS 



orange-red disk, 5-parted calyx, 5-petaled corolla, 5 stamens, 3 

 styles, and 3 short purple stigmas. Fruit, a. close bunch of globular 

 berries covered with crimson hairs. Stems, yellowish. Leaflets, 

 11 to 31, sessile, feather-veined, lance-shape, serrate, pointed. 

 June and July. 



Dry soil, along roadsides or in fields from New England 

 to Georgia and westward. 



Smooth Sumach 



JR. glabra, is our most common species, lining the roadsides and 

 covering barren fields, the foliage turning a rich, dark crimson 

 color in fall. This shrub rarely reaches a height of 10 feet. Its 

 pinnate leaves are often 1 foot long, leaflets numbering 11 to 31, 

 sharply toothed, the veins ending in the sinuses. Flowers, in large, 

 close, compound, terminal clusters, forming a bunch of small, 

 velvety, crimson-haired berries, of an acid, pleasant taste. 



Dry soil, over all the Eastern States. 



Dwarf or Mountain Sumach 



R. copaltina is a low shrub, from 3 to 5 feet high. This is the 

 most beautiful of the genus, owing to the bright, glossy, dark 

 green of the leaflets, on broadly winged petioles. Pyramidal 

 bunches of greenish white flowers stand up from the ends of the 

 branches during the summer, followed by a bunch of roundish 

 red berries, gray dotted. Leaflets, 9 to 21, unequal at base, gen- 

 erally entire. 



The bark of all members of this Family is highly charged 

 with tannin; hence is useful in tanning leather. R. coriaria, 

 a foreign species, is most used for this purpose, and finds a 

 market in Great Britain, being exported from Sicily and Italy. 



Staff Tree. Shrubby or Climbing Bittersweet. Wax- 

 work 



Celastrus scandens. — Family, Staff Tree. Color, greenish. Pis- 

 tillate and staminate flowers, often on different plants. Corolla of 

 5 expanding petals, slightly fringed, inserted under a cup-shaped 

 disk which lines the calyx-tube. In sterile flowers the 5 stamens 

 alternate with the 5 calyx-lobes. In fertile flowers the ovary, 

 2 to 4-celled, arises from the top of the disk, with a thick style 

 and 2-lobed stigma. Leaves, alternate, elliptical or oval, some- 

 what rounded at base, pointed at apex, finely toothed, petioled, 

 2 to 5 inches long. Flowers, in racemose clusters, terminating 

 the branches. June. 



It is the fruit which makes this a favorite plant, a scarlet 



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