Handbook of the Trees of New England Part 28

=Fruit.=--A smooth, dark brown, flat pod, about 3 inches long, containing several small brown flattish seeds, remaining on the tree throughout the winter.

=Horticultural Value.=--Hardy throughout New England in all dry, sunny situations, of rapid growth, spreading by underground stems, ordinarily short-lived and subject to serious injury by the attacks of borers.

Occasionally procurable in large quant.i.ties at a low rate. In Europe there are many horticultural forms, a few of which are occasionally offered in American nurseries. The type is propagated from seed, the forms by grafting.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE LXVII.--Robinia Pseudacacia.]

1. Winter buds.

2. Flowering branch.

3. Flower with corolla removed.

4. Fruiting branch.

=Robinia viscosa, Vent.=

CLAMMY LOCUST.

This tree appears to be sparingly established in southern Canada and at many points throughout New England.

Common in cultivation and occasionally established through the middle states; native from Virginia along the mountains of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.

Easily distinguished from _R. Pseudacacia_ by its smaller size, glandular, viscid branchlets, later period of blossoming, and by its more compact, usually upright, scarcely fragrant, rose-colored flower-cl.u.s.ters.

SIMARUBACEae. AILANTHUS FAMILY.

=Ailanthus glandulosus, Desf.=

AILANTHUS. TREE-OF-HEAVEN. CHINESE SUMAC.

Spa.r.s.ely 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 cl.u.s.ters 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 coa.r.s.e, 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 alt.i.tude 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 velvety hairs, like the young horns of deer (giving rise to the common name), the p.u.b.escence 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 p.u.b.escent, 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 cl.u.s.ter.

7. Fruit.

=Rhus Vernix, L.=

_Rhus venenata, DC._

DOGWOOD. POISON SUMAC. POISON ELDER.

=Habitat and Range.=--Low grounds and swamps; occasional on the moist slopes of hills.

Infrequent in Ontario.

Maine,--local and apparently restricted to the southwestern sections; as far north as Chesterville (Franklin county); Vermont,--infrequent; common throughout the other New England states, especially near the seacoast.

South to northern Florida; west to Minnesota and Louisiana.

=Habit.=--- A handsome shrub or small tree, 5-20 feet high; trunk sometimes 8-10 inches in diameter; broad-topped in the open along the edge of swamps; conspicuous in autumn by its richly colored foliage and diffusely panicled, pale, yellowish-white fruit.