452 
DECIDUOUS TEEES. 
very opposite in most respects of the long compound serrate-leaved 
and scraggy little sumach of the fields ; and the vine well known as 
the poison ivy, J?/ms toxicodendron^ which wreaths walls and trunks 
of trees with its glossy foliage, differs as widely from both. The fol- 
lowing is by far the most valuable of the family for embellishment ; 
The Purple Fringe Tree or Venetian Sumach. Rhus 
cotiniis.-~tY\Rs, forms either a large shrub or small tree of finely 
rounded outline. The leaves are pretty 
to examine separately on account of their 
peculiar fineness of texture, their pure 
bright color, and their cleanly-cut oval 
form ; and they are borne in such healthy 
abundance on every part of the branches, 
and break into so finely rounded masses, 
that it is very elegant even without the 
peculiar flowering which gives its name. The flowers when they 
first appear in June, are a pale green color, with a delicate shade of 
purple, in large delicately divided panicles projected beyond the 
leaves, and borne so profusely that they seem like masses of down 
almost covering the shrub, and revealing in their openings the 
bright green foliage below. These blossoms become more purplish 
as they remain on the tree, and finally change to dry masses of 
delicate seed-vessels, which are partly overgrown by the summer 
growth of leaves. The latter hang on till heavy frosts, and occa- 
sionally turn to a fine reddish-yellow. Both as a bush and as a 
tree it is beautiful, curious, and desirable. There are specimens 
.near Philadelphia with trunks eight inches in diameter three feet 
from the ground, and tops twenty feet high and broad. Fig. 153 
shows the common form, and appearance when in flower, of a 
tree or bush five or six years planted. It requires a dry warm 
soil. 
The Tree Sumach, Rhus typhina^ a low, irregularly branched, 
flat-topped, spreading tree or shrub, with compound leaves from two 
to three feet long, composed of from eleven to nineteen leaflets. The 
leaves drop very early after changing to a warm yellow or purplish- 
red. This is occasionally a picturesque tree \ its peculiarly level 
head and warm-toned ailantus-like leaves showing to best advan- 
Fig. 153. 
