XXXIV. THE FRAGRANT SUMACH. 507 
and fertile flowers are on different plants, in panicles in the 
angle of the leaves or of the scales near the base of the recent 
shoots. ‘The partial flower-stalks are very short; the calyx of 
the fertile flowers of 5 pointed, greenish-white segments, clasp- 
ing the corolla of 5 whitish-yellow, veined, flat or reflexed, 
rounded or pointed segments; stamens 5, short, anthers orange, 
large, opening laterally; ovary ovate, with 1 large terminal and 
2 smaller, lateral stigmas. The sterile flowers have a perianth 
of 10 pieces, the 2 or 3 outer ones short, pointed, green; the 
next 2 or 3, wider and longer, resembling the 5 interior, which 
are ovate, white veined with purple; stamens 5, with flat an- 
thers. 
This plant, as its name indicates, is poisonous in the same 
manner as the Poison Sumach, but in an inferior degree. As is 
the case with all vegetable poisons, different constitutions are 
differently affected by it. All persons, probably, might be poi- 
soned by it. My brother, W.S. Emerson, a physician, who had 
always handled it with impunity, wishing to ascertain this in his 
own case, scarified his arm and apphed the expressed juice to 
the wounds. Within twenty-four hours, the arm began to swell 
and be painful, and in a few days an ulcer was produced on the 
scarified portion, painful, of long continuance and very difficult 
to heal, with the remedies, acetate of lead and corrosive subli- 
mate, recommended in Dr. Bigelow’s excellent account of the 
plant in his Medical Botany. 
The juice of this plant is yellowish and milky, becoming 
black after a short exposure to the air. It has been used as 
marking ink, and, on linen, is indelible. 
Sp. 6. Tue Fracrant Sumace. &. aromatica. Aiton. 
This plant has quite a different aspect from any of the sumachs 
previously described. I have not found it in the eastern part of 
the State; but Prof. Dewey tells me it grows near Williams 
College. It has long been cultivated at the Botanic Garden, 
Cambridge, where it is a straggling bush, four or five feet 
high, with a brown, smoothish stem, and somewhat numerous 
branches. 
The leaves are ternate on a short petiole; leaflets sessile, 
