979 



(Hie Crca£uri) of aBotann, 



[RHUS 



■ America, having simple or pinnate coarse 

 ; and generally toothed leaves, and flowers 

 | in axillary or terminal racemes, often 

 covered with a rich brownish wool. These 

 flowers have a straight cylindrical club- 

 shaped calyx of four linear sepals, with 

 concave apices, which become recurved ; 

 four stamens, one inserted above the mid- 

 dle of each sepal, with linear anthers; and 

 a straight filiform persistent style having 

 a club-shaped stigma. Tbe seed-vessel is a 

 woody or leathery oval two-seeded follicle, 

 containing oblong compressed winged j 

 I seeds. [R. HJ 



RHOPALOSTYLIS. A name given by 



| Klotzsch to a scandent bush of the Eu- 



\ phorbiacece, found in Northern Brazil and 



i Gniana, and better known to botanists as 



! Dalechampia micrantha. It merely differs 



: from Dalechampia in the leaves being 



undivided instead of more orlesslobed; 



: and in the sunk instead of projecting 



stigmas at the apex of the club-shaped 



style, which is much longer than the 



flowers. The ovate and alternate stalked 



leaves are smooth and five-nerved, while 



the inconspicuous flowers are borne on 



short axillary peduncles. [A. A. B.] 



RHUBARB. Rheum. — , BUCHARIAN. 

 Rheum undulatum. — , ENGLISH. Rheum 

 Rhaponticum. — , FRENCH. Rheum Rha- 

 ponticum undulatum and compactum. — , 

 HIMALAYAN. Rheum Emodi and Web- 

 bianum. — , MONK'S. Rumex alpinus ; 

 also R. Patientia. — , POOR-MAN'S Tha- 

 lictrum flavum. — , TURKEY. Rheum 

 palmatum. 



RHUBARBE. (Fr.1 Rheum. — DES 

 MOINES. Rumex Fatientia. — DES 

 PAUVRES. Tlialictrum flavum. 



RHUS. A large and widely-spread genus 

 of Anacardiacew, found abundantly in the 

 temperate countries of both hemispheres, 

 especially in North America and at the 

 Cape of Good Hope, and more sparingly 

 within the tropics. The greater number 

 of the species are shrubs from six to ten 

 feet high, but some are low bushes, while 

 others again grow to a considerable height 

 and form trees. "With few exceptions 

 their leaves are compound, either com- 

 posed of three leaflets or pinnate with a 

 terminal leaflet. The Venetian Sumach 

 and a few others, however, have simple 

 leaves. Their flowers are small, and most 

 frequently have only one sex perfectly 

 developed ; the male and female flowers 

 sometimes occurring on separate trees, 

 and very few species having uniformly 

 perfect flowers. Their fruits are small, and 

 are either nearly dry or slightly juicy, and 

 contain a single bony one-seeded stone. 



Most of the species of Rhus possess 

 poisonous properties in a greater or less 

 degree. Some American species indeed, 

 such as R. venenata and R. Toxicodendron, 

 produce effects almost rivalling those once 

 fabulously imputed to the Upas-tree of 

 Java (Antiaris), the hands and arms, and 

 sometimes even the whole body, becoming 

 greatly swollen from simply touching or 



carrying a branch of one of these plants, 

 and the swelling being accompanied with 

 intolerable pain and inflammation, and 

 ending in ulceration. These effects, how- 

 ever, are not felt by everyone, some people 



being able to handle the plants with im- 

 punity. R. venenata, called the Poison 

 Sumach or Poison Elder, is a tall shrub 

 with pinnate leaves composed of eleven or 

 thirteen smoothish leaflets ; while R. Toxi- 

 codendron is a rambling shrub, either 

 trailing along the ground and rooting at 

 intervals, or climbing up trees or on walls 

 and attaching itself like ivy, and has leaves 

 composed of only three leaflets. 



Some species, however, yield useful pro- 

 ducts, such as R. Coriaria, the Tanning 

 Sumach, which affords commercial Sumach 

 or Shumac. This species is a native of 

 the European countries bordering the 

 Mediterranean, and when allowed to grow 

 to its full size attains a height of fifteen or 



Rhus Cotinus. 



twenty feet ; but in a cultivated state the 

 young shoots are cut off annually for the 

 sake of their leaves, and it is consequently 

 seldom seen higher than four or five feet. 

 Its leaves are hairy and composed of from 



