136 
THE YOUNG SCIENTIST. 
stately proportions— a height of twenty 
feet — but more commonly the proportions 
of a shrub or small tree. The leaves are 
smooth and nearly hairless, and resemble 
those of the hickory or Wistaria, but are 
much smaller. The bark is smooth ; the 
fruit is contained in long, drooping and 
very shiny black or dark brown stems, and 
in general appearance closely resembles 
that of the poison ivy. In the fall of the 
year the leaves take on beautiful tints of 
red and yellow, and are often gathered by 
leaf collectors for household adornment. 
On one occasion three ladies having gath- 
ered bunches of these leaves, held them 
close to their faces, as a protection from 
the sun ; all three became so severely 
poisoned as to be confined to their beds 
for six weeks. The berries, too, are often 
gathered for the same purpose, and nu- 
merous instances are known of people 
having been poisoned by sleeping in 
rooms containing ornaments composed 
of these berries. The other day I met a 
collector for fresh-water aquaria, one 
who has tramped the woods, marshes 
and streams for twenty years, strong, ro- 
bust, and abstemious in his habits. He 
had always handled the poisonous ivy 
and sumac with impunity, but at last he 
got a terrible dose of sumac poison, which 
sent him to bed and in the doctor's hands 
for over a month. It must have been 
that his system had undergone some 
change which placed him in a condition 
to become severely poisoned. Some years 
ago I contributed the following experi- 
ence to a contemporary journal. It was 
at that time the fashion to wear large 
wreaths and bunches of artificial fiowers 
inside and outside of ladies' 
bonnets. The flower-makers 
being hard pressed for ma- 
terial, made use of dried 
grasses, seed vessels, burrs 
and catkins. These were 
painted, dyed, bronzed and 
frosted, to make them at- 
tractive. I became greatly 
interested in the business 
and the ingenuity dis])layed, 
and spent much time in ex- 
amining the contents of the 
milliners' Avindows. On 
one occasion, when stand- 
ing before a very fashion- 
able milliner's window on 
Fourteenth street, I was 
horrorstricken on discov- 
ering that an immense 
wreath of grayish berries, which con- 
stituted the inside trimming of a bon- 
net, was composed entirely of the berries 
of the poison swamp suma^, just as they 
had been gathered, not a particle of var- 
nish, bronze or other material coating 
them. The bonnet, when worn, would 
lay this entire mass of villainous berries 
on the top and sides of the wearer's head, 
and a few of the sprays about the ears 
and on the forehead. Stepping into the 
store, I addressed the proprietor and 
asked her if she knew that the bonnet 
was trimmed with the berries of one of 
the most poisonous shrubs known in the 
United States. After staring at me in a 
sort of puzzled way, she informed me that 
I was mistaken, that she had received 
those flowers direct from Paris only a 
week ago. 
"Madam," I replied, "there must be a 
mistake somewhere, for those are the 
berries of the poison sumac, which does ; 
not grow in Europe." She gave me one 
angry look, asked me to please attend to j 
my own business, and swept away from ! 
me to the other end of the store. A few 
days after this I read in the daily papers 
