408 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



CHAPTER V. 



PLANTS WITH THE PETALS AND STAMENS GROWING FROM THE CALYX, 



EXCEPT IN CORNUS. 



FAMILY XXII. THE CORNUS FAMILY. CORNA'CEJE. 



De Candolle. 



This family contains trees or shrubs and perennial herbs, 

 with opposite, rarely alternate, entire leaves, pinnately veined 

 and without stipules, and with flowers in umbels or cymes. 

 The calyx coheres with the two- or rarely three-celled ovary, 

 and has a small, four-toothed border. The corolla is of four 

 deciduous petals, growing from the top of the calyx-tube and 

 alternate with its teeth. The stamens are four, alternate with 

 the petals. Fruit a two-, rarely three-celled drupe, with solitary 

 seeds, and crowned with the remains of the calyx. The plants 

 of this family are found in the temperate and cooler regions of 

 both continents, particularly in North America and Nepaul. 

 None of the family are hurtful. They are generally bitter and 

 astringent; and the bark and leaves of several, particularly of 

 Comus Jiorida and C. sericea, have been used with efficacy in 

 fevers. The berries of some species, as, for example, of C. 

 Canadensis, are edible, but not very pleasant. The wood of 

 the cornels is hard and close-grained, and is used in Europe for 

 cogs, in mill-wheels, and for other small articles formed by the 

 turner ; and in this country as a substitute for box-wood. 



XXII. THE CORNEL. CO'RNUS. Tournefort. 



Shrubs or small trees, with entire, deciduous leaves, minutely 

 rough with appressed, bicuspidate hairs, and white or rarely 

 yellow flowers. The trunk is sometimes subterraneous, throw- 

 ing up annual, herbaceous branches. There are about twenty 

 species, of which eleven are, according to Torrey and Gray, 

 found in America, north of Mexico, two are found in Mexico, 

 three in Nepaul, one in Japan, two are common to Europe and 



