THE WAX BERRY IS A POISON SIGN 
This trait that is common to these three cousins, of the 
sumac family, does not exist in most of the other sumacs. 
There is the smoke bush of American gardens. It, too, is 
a sumac. The mango tree of the tropics is a sumac. 
Most of the sumacs, in fact, are tropical plants. The tree 
that yields the pistachio nut is a sumac, as is that which 
produces the cashew nut. 
In the Orient there are certain sumac trees that yield 
shellac and varnishes. The black varnish of Burma is 
from one of these trees. In these varnishes now and again 
there crops up the curse of the sumacs. It poisons people, 
burning and blistering them. The burning and blistering 
is the same as that of the poison ivy of the United States, 
on the other side of the world. 
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