CASHEW FAMILY. Anacardiaceae. 



CASHEW FAMILY. Anacardiacece. 



' Trees or shrubs with alternate compound leaves, and 

 small regular, generally polygamous flowers, i. e. pistil- 

 late, staminate, and perfect flowers on the same plant 

 or on different plants ; the flowers of five parts in gen- 

 eral. Fruit a berry. Cross-fertilized by bees, the beelike 

 flies, and butterflies. The juice of some species is in- 

 tensely poisonous. 



Dwarf Sumac ^ shrub with fine-hairy branches, and 

 Rhuts copallina compound dark green leaves of 9-21 ovate 

 Green=white lance-shaped shining leaflets, toothless, 

 July-August or with few b S cure teeth; the stem 

 is wing-margined between the leaflets. The green- 

 white flowers are polygamous, and collected in a cone- 

 like terminal cluster, succeeded by the maroon-red hairy 

 fruit. 1-7 feet high ; sometimes a tree 25 feet high. 

 Common on rocky hillsides from Me., south, and west to 

 Minn., Neb., Mo., and Tex. 



Staghorn -^ similar and very common shrub in 



Sumac thickets among the hills, with golden 



Rhus typhina brown twigs densely covered with velvety 

 June hairs, and leaves of 11-31 lance-shaped, 



sharply toothed leaflets, dark green above and whitish, 

 fine-hairy beneath ; turning a brilliant scarlet in the 

 early fall. The leaf -stem not winged. The polygamous 

 green-white or whitish green flowers similar to the pre- 

 ceding ; the fruit very densely covered with maroon-red 

 hairs. Dry, rocky soil, especially among the moun- 

 tains, from Me., south, and west to Minn, and Mo. 

 The wood is a dull greenish yellow handsomely grained ; 

 the bark is used for tanning leather. 



A similar smooth-stemmed shrub with 

 sTmac h leaves of 11-31 toothed leaflets, dark green 



Rhus glabra above and whitish beneath ; the stem not 

 winged. The flowers and fruit similar to 

 those of the preceding species. 2-12 feet high, some- 

 times 18 feet high. About the same distribution as the 

 above. 



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