Dermatitis venenata : an account of the action of external irritants upon the skin / by James C. White.

  • James Clarke White
Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dermatitis venenata : an account of the action of external irritants upon the skin / by James C. White. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    and many perfectly harmless plants are, moreover, avoided on suspicion that they are either one or the other of these, I prefer to give in this connection, in brief, the more graphic and popular descriptions of the first two species to be found in the second edi- tion of Bigelow’s “Florula Bostoniensis,” published in 1824, and long out of print, — a book as fresh and charming still to lovers of wild-flowers as when its gifted author, some sixty years ago, first gathered and painted them. “ Rhus vernix. L. Poisonous Sumach or Dogwood. ■— This species grows in swamps, where its fine smooth leaves give it the air of a tropical shrub or tree. The trunk is from one to five inches in diameter, branching at top, and covered with a pale grayish bark. The wood is light and brittle, and con- tains much pith. The ends of the young shoots and the petioles are usually of a fine red color, which contributes much to the beauty of the shrub. The leaves are pinnate, the leaflets ob- long or oval, entire, or sometimes slightly sinuate, acuminate, smooth, paler underneath, nearly sessile, except the terminal one, from seven to thirteen in number. The flowers, which appear in June, are very small, green, in loose axillary panicles. The barren and fertile flowers grow on different trees. The fruit is a bunch of dried berries, or rather drupes, of a greenish white, sometimes marked with slight purple veins, and becoming wrinkled when old. They are roundish, a little broadest at the upper end, and compressed, containing one white, hard, furrowed seed. “ Rhus radicans. Poison Ivy. — A hardy climber, frequently seen running up trees to a great height, supporting itself by lateral roots, and becoming nearly buried in their bark. The leaves are ternate, and grow on long, semicylindrical petioles. Leaflets (3), ovate or rliomboidal, acute, smooth, and shining on both sides, the veins sometimes a little hairy beneath. The margin is sometimes entire, and sometimes variously toothed 3
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