214 



PEACTICAL POEESTRT. 



the sea, around Santa Barbara and San Diego, California. It is 

 also found in Arizona. 



R. lanriiia. — Nutt. — A large evergreen shrub, similar to the 

 last, but exhaling an aromatic odor. Leaves lanceolate, sharp- 

 pointed, and somewhat rounded at the base. Flowers yellow- 

 ish, and fruit whitish, according to Dr. Torrey, the ihin pul^D 

 of the dry fruit consists chiefly of a white, waxy material, solu- 

 ble in strong alcohol." This is the Lithroea laurina of Walpers, 



R. Metopicanij Linn. — Coral Sumach, Mountain Manchineel. — 

 Leaves smooth, composed of three to seven leaflets, oval or 

 elliptical-pointed, entire. Leaf -stalks rather long. Flowers in 

 loose panicles. Fruit oblong, smooth, of a scarlet color. Juice 

 said to be very poisonous. A rare tree, fifteen to twenty feet 

 high in Southern Florida, but more common in the West Indies. 



FOREIGN SPECIES. 



Of these, the best known and most common is the Venetian 

 Sumach, or Smoke-tree, also called Purple-fringe tree. Its 

 botanical name is Rims Cotinus, and is a native of Southern 

 Europe. Its leaves are roundish-oval, or oblong, and the flow- 

 ers very minute, and of a greenish color, but only a small num- 

 ber produce seed, the greater part are abortive, but are suc- 

 ceeded by long, silky hairs, forming a cloud-like mass, that 

 nearly conceals the foliage, and so light and feathery that the 

 name of smoke-tree is not unappropriate. A panicle of a much 

 reduced flower-cluster is shown in fig. 47. A few other foreign 

 species have been introduced as ornamental trees and shrubs, 

 one of the best of these is R. Osbecki, from China. It has very 

 large pinnate leaves, the leaf -stalk broadly winged between the 

 leaflets. It is quite hardy in our Northern States, and grows to 

 a hight of twenty feet or more. 



ROBiKiA^ Linn. — Locust Tree, 



A small genus of only about a half a dozen species, of hand- 

 some deciduous trees or shrubs, with showy, pea-shaped flowers 

 in hanging axillary racemes. Fruit, a linear-pod, usually flat, 

 several seeded, margined on the seed-bearing edge, at length 

 two-valved, opening and allowing the seed to drop out. All 

 readily i3ropagated from seed, or by budding or grafting. The 

 seed will keep sound for several years, but become so hard that 

 they require scalding to assist in germination. Some of the spe- 

 cies have rather strong spines on the smaller branches, others 

 only armed with slender prickles. 



