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THE RHUS, OR SUMACH. 
THE RHUS, OR SUMACH. 
The generic name Ebus, by which, this 
family of plants is known, owes its derivation 
to the Greek rhoos, or rhous, which comes from 
the Celtic rhudd, or red, apparently in refe- 
rence to the colour of the fruit and leaves of some 
of the species in the autumn. Sumach comes 
from Simaq, the Arabic name of the plant. 
Rhus belongs to the natural order Anacardia- 
ceae, and both to the Linnasan Pentandria 
Trigynia, and Dioecia Pentandria. It consists 
of deciduous small trees, shrubs, and climbing 
plants. There are a great number of species, 
of which those noticed are the most interesting. 
Rhus Amela (Amela Sumach) is a Nepal 
deciduous shrub, growing four feet in height. 
Rhus aromatica (aromatic Sumach) is a 
deciduous shrub, attaining the height of six 
feet; the leaves consist of three rhomboid- 
ovate leaflets; the flowers are small, yellow, 
in dense terminal spikes. It is a native of 
several parts of North America. 
Rhus copaUina (Gum Copal Sumach) has 
large pinnated leaves of from five to seven 
pairs of lanceolate entire leaflets, which are 
used as tobacco by the Indians of the Missouri 
and Mississippi. It forms a deciduous shrub, 
with stolon iferous, or creeping roots, and 
grows four or five feet high, bearing its yellow- 
green flowers in August. A variety called 
leucantha, has whitish flowers, and its roots 
are not stoloniferous. 
Rhus Coriaria (hide-tanning Sumach) 
has pinnate leaves, of five or seven pairs of 
elliptical, toothed leaflets ; the flowers are 
whitish green, in loose terminal panicles, and 
appear in July. It forms a small deciduous 
tree, of eight or ten feet in height, and is 
found in sunny rocky spots in the south of 
Europe. The seeds are used at Aleppo to 
provoke appetite, as those of mustard are in 
England. 
Rhus Cotinus (Venetian Sumach) is a 
very desirable shrub, with obovate, entire, 
stiff, lucid leaves, which remain on till killed 
•by frost, and render the plant almost sub- 
evergreen. It usually grows from six to eight 
feet high, and is exceedingly ornamental when 
covered with large loose panicles of elongated 
hairy pedicels of a reddish green tinge, which 
are produced at the end of nearly every shoot, 
forming a thready interwoven mass, often as 
much as six inches through ; very few of 
these, which are properly flower stalks, pro- 
duce any flowers ; the flowers become abortive, 
and the pedicels, after the flowering time, 
lengthen and become hairy ; the flowers are 
small, and of a pale purple or flesh colour. 
It inhabits the south of Europe, and Asia. 
The whole plant is used for tanning, and for 
dyeing wool, silk and leather of a yellow 
colour. About Venice it is used for dyeing 
black. Sometimes this plant attains a much 
larger size than has been named ; a plant at 
Enville, in Staffordshire, several years ago, 
was upwards of forty feet in diameter. 
Mhus glabra (glabrous, or Scarlet Sumach) 
is a deciduous shrub of nine or ten feet high, 
with pinnate leaves, of from eight to ten pairs 
of lanceolate glabrous leaflets ; the flowers are 
greenish yellow. It is common in the woods 
throughout the greater part of North America. 
One variety of this, called coccinea, (or elegans 
by some,) has red flowers. The branches of 
R. glabra, boiled with the berries, afford an 
ink-like tincture. R. viridiflora is nearly 
allied to this. 
Rhus pentaphylla (five-leafleted Sumach) 
is a deciduous shrub, growing to the height of 
ten feet ; the leaves are pinnate, with three to 
five linear-lanceolate, and entire leaflets. The 
fruit is acidulous, and edible; and the bark 
dyes red, and is used in tanning leather. 
Rhus pumila (dwarf Sumach) grows only 
about a foot in height, with leaves of many 
pairs of oval leaflets, and bearing greenish 
flowers in July. It is very venomous. 
Rhus radicans (rooting branched Sumach 
or Poison Oak) is an exceeding poisonous 
plant, but which acts differently on different 
persons ; some dare not even approach it. It 
is a deciduous plant, with a low shrubby stem, 
rising two feet or more in height, and ex- 
tending twenty or thirty feet over the surface 
of the ground, rooting at the joints; the 
leaves consist of three large ovate, entire 
leaflets. It is found in many parts of North 
America, sometimes spreading on the ground; 
at other times climbing to the tops of the 
highest trees, its roots penetrating their bark. 
A pale brown sap, obtained from the stem, is 
of a disagreeable smell, and makes an indelible 
mark upon linen. There are two or three 
varieties : — vulgaris, volubilis, and micro- 
carpa, all of which are climbing plants. 
Rhus Toxicodendron (Poison tree Sumach) 
has leaves of three large, nearly oval leaflets. 
The plant approaches R. radicans so closely, 
that probably they are not distinct as species. 
It yields a yellow milky sap, which also forms 
an indelible ink for linen. It is a native of 
North America. There are one or two va- 
rieties of this. 
Rhus typhina (fever or stag's-horn Sumach) 
is a deciduous tree growing from twelve to 
fifteen feet or more high, with irregular 
crooked forked branches, covered with soft 
velvety down, resembling that of a young 
stag's horn, both in colour and texture. The 
leaves are large, pinnate, of from eight to ten 
pairs of lanceolate leaflets. It occurs in most 
parts of North America, in some parts of 
which the wood is used for tanning leather ; 
