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 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.
