ill)us aromatica. N atural Order: Anctcardiacccc — Sumach Family. 
§g|jpKNOWN familiarly as Sumach, the Rhus aromatica is a pretty 
shrub from two to six feet high, growing on open lands in 
Canada and the United States, sometimes covering acres of 
ground it left unmolested. The flowers are yellowish, and are 
, rather unattractive in comparison with the berries when 
ripened, which look like so many crimson plumes waving in 
the air. They possess an acid taste, and are not poisonous. The 
Venetian Sumach is said by Nuttall to grow plentifully in Arkansas. 
The Italians use it in preparing leather. Among other species of the 
Sumach are the Rhus glabra, the bark of which may be used in tan¬ 
ning, and the berries to create a dye; the Rhus typhina, the wood ot 
which is aromatic, and produces a yellow dye; and the Poison Sumach, 
^ the appearance of which is similar to the above, except that it is perhaps 
larger and inhabits swampy places. It is intensely poisonous, even to the touch, 
and sometimes imparts its pernicious influence to the surrounding atmosphere. 
jlpbnihnj* 
T^LORAL apostles! that in dewy splendor 
A Weep without sin and blush without a crime, 
O, may I deeply learn and ne’er surrender 
Your love sublime! —Horace Smith. 
'T'HE bright sun compacts the precious stone, 
1 Imparting radiant luster like his own; 
He tinctures rubies with their rosy hue, 
And on the sapphire spreads a heavenly blue. 
—Sir R. Blackmore. 
TT RIGHT and glorious is that revelation 
Writ all over this great world of ours 
Making evident our own creation, 
In these stars of earth, these golden flowers. 
— Longfellow. 
AND wide a splendor streamed through all the sky; 
O’er sea and land one soft, delicious blush, 
That touched the gray rocks lightly, tenderly; 
A transitory flush. —Celia Thaxter. 
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