ty hairs, like the young horns of deer
(giving rise to the common name), the pubescence disappearing after two
or three years; the extremities dotted with minute orange spots which
enlarge laterally in successive seasons, giving a roughish feeling to
the branches.

=Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Buds roundish, obtuse, densely covered with
tawny wool, sunk within a large leaf-scar. Leaves pinnately compound,
1-2 feet long; stalk hairy, reddish above, enlarged at base covering the
axillary bud; leaflets 11-31, mostly in opposite pairs, the middle pair
longest, nearly sessile except the odd one, 2-4 inches long; dark green
above, light and often downy beneath; outline narrow to broad-oblong or
broad-lanceolate, usually serrate, rarely laciniate, long-pointed,
slightly heart-shaped or rounded at base; stipules none.

=Inflorescence.=--June to July. Flowers in dense terminal, thyrsoid
panicles, often a foot in length and 5-6 inches wide; sterile and
fertile mostly on separate trees, but sterile, fertile, and perfect
occasionally on the same tree; calyx small, the 5 hairy,
ovate-lanceolate sepals united at the base and, in sterile flowers,
about half the length of the usually recurved petals; stamens 5,
somewhat exserted; ovary abortive, smooth; in the fertile flowers the
sepals are nearly as long as the upright petals; stamens short; ovary
pubescent, 1-celled, with 3 short styles and 3 spreading stigmas.

=Fruit.=--In compound terminal panicles, 6-10 or 12 inches long, made up
of small, dryish, smooth-stoned drupes densely covered with acid,
crimson hairs, persistent till spring.

=Horticultural Value.=--Hardy throughout New England. Grows in any
well-drained soil, but prefers a deep, rich loam. The vigorous growth,
bold, handsome foliage, and freedom from disease make it desirable for
landscape plantations. It spreads rapidly from suckers, a single plant
becoming in a few years the center of a broad-spreading group. Seldom
obtainable in nurseries, but collected plants transplant easily.

The cut-leaved form is cultivated in nurseries for the sake of its
exceedingly graceful and delicate foliage.

[Illustration: PLATE LXVIII.--Rhus typhina.]

1. Winter buds.
2. Branch with staminate flowers.
3. Staminate flower.
4. Branch with pistillate flowers.
5. Pistillate flower.
6. Fruit cluster.
7. Fruit.

=Rhus Vernix, L.=

_Rhus venenata, DC._

DOGWOOD. POISON SUMAC. POISON ELDER.

=Habitat and Range.=-