A 
384 SUMACH. 
and the soil.—The New England smooth sumach 
generally attains a height of about 14 feet, and 
sends forth from its root and its sides many 
strong shoots, covered with a smooth downy 
bark. Its radical shoots of only one summer’s 
growth are often an inch in diameter ; its lateral 
shoots or young branches also are large, and 
have in winter a light brown colour; its leaves 
are larger than those of the other varieties, and 
comprise each ten or more proportionally large 
leaflets and a terminating odd one; and its 
flowers come out in large loose panicles at the 
ends of the branches, and have a greenish yel- 
low colour, and bloom in June.—The Carolina or 
elegant or scarlet-flowered smooth sumach gene- 
rally attains a height of upwards of 10 feet. Its 
branches are smooth, and have a fine purplish col- 
our, and are dusted over with a whitish powder ; 
and its flowers grow in panicles at the ends of 
the branches, and have a fine scarlet colour, and 
bloom in July, and are succeeded by bunches of 
seeds which in autumn exhibit a very beautiful 
red colour—The Canada smooth sumach gene- 
rally attains a height of about 10 feet. Its 
branches are purplish and dusted like those of 
the preceding ; its leaflets are smal] on both sur- 
faces, but are shining green above and hoary be- 
low; and its flowers grow in large panicles at 
the ends of the branches, and have a red colour, 
and appear as if a whitish powder had been 
dusted in among them, and bloom in July.— 
The berries of the smooth sumach dye a red col- 
our, and, when boiled with the young wood, 
afford also a black ink-like colour; but they do 
not come to maturity on plants grown in Britain. 
The fever or Virginian sumach, Rhus typhina, 
is a native of Virginia, and was introduced to 
Britain in the former part of the 17th century. 
It is hardy and deciduous, and comprises several 
varieties, which so differ in height and habit as 
to render it both a shrub and a tree.—The com- 
mon stag’s horn variety generally attains a 
height of about 10 feet. Its younger branches 
much resemble stag’s horns, and are covered 
with a hairy down of a velvety appearance; its 
older branches have in some places a greyish 
colour, but are properly clothed with a smooth 
brownish bark; its leaves are pinnated and 
large and of noble aspect, and comprise each 
about seven pairs of leaflets and a terminating 
odd one ; its leaflets are oblong, and larger than 
those of the tanner’s sumach; its flowers come 
out in large tufts at the ends of the branches, 
and have a herbaceous colour and an inconspicu- 
ous appearance, and bloom in June; and its 
seeds, after the fall of the foliage at the end of 
the autumn, are left in large tufts at the ends of 
the branches, and have a scarlet colour, and 
make an uncommon show.—The dwarf Virginian 
sumach differs from the preceding only in the 
dwarfishness of its stature; and it seldom rises 
higher than 3 feet.—The large Virginian sumach 
shoots more strongly than the common stag’s 
SUMMER. 
horn variety, and has a more reddish colour and 
a less velvety surface in its young shoots, and 
generally attains a height of 16 or 18 feet.—The 
arborescent variety commonly rises as high as 
25 feet, and blooms in July and August.—The 
fever sumach, in at least its principal varieties, 
is economically valuable. 
The varnish sumach, or varnish-tree, or poison- 
ash, Rhus vernix, is a native of North America 
and of Japan, and was introduced to Britain in 
the early part of the 18th century. It is hardy 
and deciduous, and has commonly a height of 
from 8 to 15 feet. It takes the epithets of poison 
and varnish from the properties of its milky 
juice, and its epithet of ash from the form and 
appearance of its foliage. Its branches are not 
very numerous ; its bark is smooth, and has a 
light brown colour tinged with red; its leaves 
are pinnated, and comprise each three or four 
pairs of leaflets and a terminating odd one, and 
change in autumn to colours varying from red to 
purple, and make then a gorgeous show ; its leaf- 
lets are oblong, pointed, entire, and, till autumn, 
of a fine green colour ; and its flowers come out 
on the wings of the branches, and have a whitish 
herbaceous colour and an inconspicuous appear- 
ance, and bloom in summer, 
Six other hardy deciduous species are the 
rooting, &. radicans, a low decumbent shrub, 
from North America, of similar habit and ap- 
pearance to the poison-oak sumach, carrying 
herbaceous-coloured flowers in June and July, 
and comprising two varieties, the one with small 
fruit and the other of a twining habit ; the aro- 
matic and the sweet-smelling, 2. aromatica, and 
R. suaveolens from North America, respectively 
8 and 6 feet high, and both carrying yellow 
flowers in May; the wild olive, &. cotenus, from 
the South of Europe, 6 feet high, and carrying 
herbaceous-coloured flowers in June and July ; 
and the hawthorn and the hawthorn-like, /. 
oxyacantha and R. oxyacanthoides, both from 
Barbary, 6 feet high, and herbaceous - colour- 
flowered. The greenhouse and conservatory 
species are chiefly upright evergreens of from 2 
to 10 feet in height, and mostly from the Cape of 
Good Hope; and, with scarcely an exception, 
may be described as generally ornamental. ‘Two 
of the most interesting of the hothouse species, 
both evergreens, are the Javanese, 2. javanica, 
10 feet high, white-flowered, and blooming in 
July,—and the lineated-leaved, RA. lineatifolia, 
from Cuba, 2 feet high, cream-colour-flowered, 
and blooming from July till September. 
SUMMER. The season of general inflores- 
cence,—the warmest and sunniest of the four,— 
that which comprises the anti-hybernal solstice 
and the longest days. ‘There is a pleasure pe- 
culiar to spring,” says Dr. Duncan, “in the con- 
templation of Nature rising, as it were, from the 
tomb, and bursting into life, and light, and joy ; 
but that which belongs to summer is not less in- 
tense, although of a different kind. The de- 
