and locally naturalized in southern Ontario, New England, and
southward.

A native of China; first introduced into the United States on an
extensive scale in 1820 at Flushing, Long Island; afterwards
disseminated by nursery plants and by seed distributed from the
Agricultural Department at Washington. Its rapid growth, ability to
withstand considerable variations in temperature, and its dark luxuriant
foliage made it a great favorite for shade and ornament. It was planted
extensively in Philadelphia and New York, and generally throughout the
eastern sections of the country. When these trees began to fill the
ground with suckers and the vile-scented sterile flowers poisoned the
balmy air of June and the water in the cisterns, occasioning many
distressing cases of nausea, a reaction set in and hundreds of trees
were cut down. The female trees, against the blossoms of which no such
objection lay, were allowed to grow, and have often attained a height of
50-75 feet, with a trunk diameter of 3-5 feet. The fruit is very
beautiful, consisting of profuse clusters of delicate pinkish or
greenish keys.

The tree is easily distinguished by its ill-scented compound leaves,
often 2-3 feet long, by the numerous leaflets, sometimes exceeding 40,
each ovate, or ovate-lanceolate, with one or two teeth near the base, by
its vigorous growth from suckers, and in winter by the coarse, blunt
shoots and conspicuous, heart-shaped leaf-scars.

ANACARDIACEAE. SUMAC FAMILY.

=Rhus typhina, L.=

_Rhus hirta, Sudw._

STAGHORN SUMAC.

=Habitat and Range.=--In widely varying soils and localities; river
banks, rocky slopes to an altitude of 2000 feet, cellar-holes and waste
places generally, often forming copses.

From Nova Scotia to Lake Huron.

Common throughout New England.

South to Georgia; west to Minnesota and Missouri.

=Habit.=--A shrub, or small tree, rarely exceeding 25 feet in height;
trunk 8-10 inches in diameter; branches straggling, thickish, mostly
crooked when old; branchlets forked, straight, often killed at the tips
several inches by the frost; head very open, irregular, characterized by
its velvety shoots, ample, elegant foliage, turning in early autumn to
rich yellows and reds, and by its beautiful, soft-looking crimson cones.

=Bark.=--Bark of trunk light brown, mottled with gray, becoming dark
brownish-gray and more or less rough-scaly in old trees; the season's
shoots densely covered with velve