in fhape and colour like the male, but are larger, and 
have a roundifli germen, fupporting three very fhort 
ftyles ; thefe are fucceeded by roundifh berries which 
ripen in autumn. 
The third fort grows naturally in North America ; 
this has a fhrubby branching ftalk which rifes fix or 
Even feet high, covered with a brown bark. The 
branches are ligneous, and grow eredt ; they are gar- 
nilhed with fmooth trifoliate leaves, whofe lobes are 
oval, fpear-fhaped, and have a few fmall indentures 
on their borders •, they are near three inches long, 
and one and a half broad, with fovera] tranfverfe veins 
from the midrib to their borders, i he male and fe- * 
male flowers grow upon feparate plants ; their fhape 
and colour is like thole of the former, and the fruit 
is alio like that. 
The fourth fort grows naturally in Virginia, Penfyl- 
vania, New England, and Carolina ; from all thefe 
countries I have received feeds and plants of it, and 
italfo grows in japan. This, in the countries where 
it grows naturally, rifes with a ftrong woody ftalk to 
the height of twenty feet or upward, but in England 
we feldom fee any of them more than five or fix feet 
high ; the reafon of this is from the plants being ten- 
der, fo are deftroyed in fevere winters but I have 
feen feme plants which were kept in pots and fheltered 
in winter, upward of ten feet high, in the garden of 
Samuel Reynardfon, Efq-, at Hillendon, which, af- 
ter his death were purchafed, with all his other exotic 
plants, by Sir Robert Walpole. This has a ftrong 
woody ftalk, covered with a light brown bark inclining 
to gray, branching out on every fide. The branches 
are garnilhed with winged leaves, compofed of two 
or three pair of lobes terminated by an odd one. The 
lobes vary greatly in their flhape, but for the moft 
part they are fpear-fhaped, about three or four inches 
long, and one and a half broad in the middle •, they 
are fometimes rounded at their bafe, but end in acute 
points ; their upper furface is fmooth, and of a lu- 
cid green, but their under fide is pale and a little 
hairy. The foot-ftalks of the leaves change to a 
bright purple colour, efpecially toward the latter part 
of lummer, and in autumn all the leaves are of a 
beautiful purple colour before they fall off. The 
male flowers are produced in loofe panicles from the 
wings of the branches ; they are fmall, of an herba- 
ceous white colour, compofed of five fmall roundifli 
petals, and have five fhort ftamina within, terminated 
by roundifli fummits. The female flowers are upon 
feparate plants from the male, and are difpofed on 
loofe panicles ; thefe are fhaped like the male, but 
are fomewhat larger, and have in their center a round- 
ifh germen, fupporting three very fhort ftyles, crown- 
ed with globular ftigmas. The germen afterward 
turns to a berry variable in fhape, fometimes almoft 
oval, at others fhaped like a fmall fpear •, but the 
moft general form is roundifli, with a protuberance 
almoft like the Cicer •, thefe include one feed. It 
flowers in July, and in warm feafons the female plants 
produce fruit, but they do not ripen here. 
This is undoubtedly the fame plant which is men- 
tioned by Dr. Kempfer in his Amcenitates Exotica- 
rum, by the title of Sitz, vel Sits Adju, or Arbor 
vernicifera legitima, folio pinnato juglandis, frubtu 
racemofa Ciceris facie, p.791, 792. The true Var- 
nilh-tree with a Walnut-tree leaf, and a branching 
fruit like Cicers. But the figure he has exhibited of 
this plant, is the moft inaccurate of any perhaps to be 
found in any of the modern books of botany ; it is 
drawn from a fide fhoot of a branch which has been 
cut off, fo has neither flower nor fruit to it, and be- 
ing a vigorous flioot, the leaves are very different in 
fize and fhape from thofe on plants which have not 
been headed ; and his deftription of the leaves feems 
to have been taken from this branch, otherwife he 
could not have compared them to thofe of the Wal- 
nut-tree. He feems to have been confcious of this 
fault, by his adding another figure of the plant in 
fmall under his own, taken from a Japan Herbal, in 
which there is a much better reprefentation of it than 
his own conveys. How a perfcn, who was employing 
himfelf in making drawings of plants, in a country 
where the natural hiftory of it was fo little known, 
fhould make choice. of fuch an imperfefl fample for 
his figure, is amazing ; for there can be no doubt of 
his meeting with perfeft plants in flower or fruit, in 
a place where the fhrubs are cultivated fo plentifully 
as he mentions ; and in his ddcription of it, he fets 
out by comparing the height of the fhrubs to thofe 
of Willow, than which he could not have chofen any 
plant by way of comparifori, which would have con- 
veyed a more indetermined idea ; for it is well known 
there are different fpecies of Willow, whofe growth 
is from four to forty feet high ^ therefore there can 
be no other way of reconciling his defeription with 
what he afterward mentions, when he is giving an 
account of the method ufed by the natives in colleft- 
ing the varnifh, where he fays the fhrubs are cut 
down every third year, but by comparing their growth 
with that of the Willows, which are cut down for 
fuel, &c. every four or five years. 
However, as the dried famples of this plant which he 
brought to Europe, agrees with the American Toxi- 
codendron here mentioned, and the milky juice of 
both have' the fame qualities of ftaining, fo there can 
be no doubt of the plants being the fame •, therefore if 
it is thought that varnifti may be of public utility, it 
may be collefted in plenty in moft of the Englifh fet- 
tlements in North America. 
Kempfer has alfo given a figure and defeription of a 
fpurious Varnifh-tree, which is called Fafi-no-Ki by 
the natives, and is by him titled Arbor vernicifera 
fpuria, fylveftris anguftifolia. Spurious wild Varnifti- 
tree with a narrow leaf, which he fays agrees with the 
other in every part, excepting the lobes of the leaves, 
which are narrower. This led me into a miftake in 
the former editions of the Gardeners Dictionary, by 
fuppofing their difference might arife from culture 
only ; but haying fince raifed from feeds a fhrub 
which has all the appearance of his fpurious Varnifh- 
tree, and is evidently a diftinCt fpecies, if not a diffe- 
rent genus from the true fort, I am certain Kempfer 
has been guilty of a great miftake in this particular. 
The feeds of this were font from China, for thofe of 
the Varnifh-tree ; but when I fowed them, i remarked 
they were pretty much like thofe of the Beecfotree, 
but fmaller, being thick on one fide and narrow on 
the other, in fhape of a wedge, from whence I fup- 
pofod there w 7 ere three of the feeds included in one cap- 
fule. There is a fhrub of this kind now growing in 
the Chelfea Garden, which is more than twenty feet 
high, but, as it has not yet produced flowers, I am 
at a lofs where to range it, therefore have placed it 
here till it has fhewn its flowers. How Dr. Linnaeus 
came to change the title of this plant, and remove it 
to another clafs, I am at a lofs to account •, for had he 
leen the plants growing, or had fpecimens of it, I am 
certain he would not have done : for though fome- 
times, in very vigorous growing plants, the flowers 
have frequently fix or feven ftamina, yet their con- 
ftant number is rarely more than five : and how fome 
other perforis, from whom he had this intelligence, 
has fuppofed the true Varnilh-tree and the wild one 
were the fame, I am at as great a lofs to guefs ; for 
the leaves of the true Varnifh-tree has feldom more 
than four pair of lobes, but the wild fort has four- 
teen or fixteen pair, and the lobes are differently 
formed. 
The fifth fort grows naturally in North America, 
from whence the feeds were a few years fince brought 
to England ; this has a fhrubby ftalk which fends out 
many ligneous branches, covered with a fmooth pur- 
ple bark, and garnifhed with trifoliate leaves, Handing 
upon foot-ftalks an inch long ; the lobes are oval, 
about two inches long, and one and a half broad in 
the middle, of a deep lucid green on their upper 
fide, but of a pale green on their under, and are 
deeply crenated or indented on their edges, their bafe 
joining 
