412 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



invested with a silky down, especially above, but sometimes 

 almost smooth. 



The leaves are opposite, two or three inches long, sometimes 

 more, but less than half as broad, ovate-lanceolate, oblong or 

 elliptic, rounded or tapering at base, ending in a rather long 

 point. They are dark green, entire, nearly smooth or with a 

 few hairs above, paler, with ferruginous hairs, particularly on 

 the mid-rib and veins beneath. The footstalk is half an inch 

 long, round, plain and purple above, hairy. The shoots from 

 the root are green and downy, and bear larger and rather 

 smoother leaves. The upper leaves, particularly those next the 

 flower-stalk, are very broad, those below and on the other 

 branches, longer and narrower. 



The cymes are terminal, numerous, on round footstalks, an 

 inch or more in length, silky or downy, flat or hollow above, 

 not large. Calyx oblong, downy, with long, lanceolate, acute, 

 greenish segments ; petals tapering, bluntly pointed, yellow 

 without, white within. The stamens are as long as the petals 

 or longer, bearing large anthers. The style, which proceeds 

 from a purple ovary, is large and ends in a head. 



But little of the fruit is matured. The berries, particularly 

 the abortive ones, retain the four lanceolate segments of the 

 calyx and the capitate style. 



The bark of the silky cornel possesses, according to Dr. Bar- 

 ton, the same properties as that of the Flowering Dogwood, 

 and has often been successfully used as a substitute for Peruvian 

 bark. 



This plant is very abundant in the neighborhood of Boston 

 and in the middle of the State. It occurs from Canada to 

 Georgia and Louisiana. It flowers in May and June, and ripens 

 its fruit in September. 



