XXII. THE DWARF CORNEL, 415 



Section Third. — Plants with herbaceous stems, and flowers in 

 an umbel-like cyme, surrounded by a petal-like involucre. 



Sp. 7. The Dwarf Cornel. Bunch Berry. C. Canadensis. L. 

 Figured in Audubon's Birds, II, Plate 164. 



A handsome, humble plant, growing in low, damp woods and 

 in swamps, conspicuous in May and June for its showy, white 

 flowers, and in autumn for its round bunches of red berries. 



Stem simple, erect, or ascending, four to six inches high, 

 from a creeping root, square, the membranous projection of the 

 angles formed by the decurrent base of the leaves. Leaves op- 

 posite, in alternate pairs. Near the root they are thin, narrow, 

 clasping, membranous. At the surface is a pair of bract-like, 

 purplish, pointed scales, with veins of deeper purple, one quar- 

 ter to half an inch long. Above is a larger pair, and at the top 

 is a pair still larger, in whose axils are two pairs of smaller 

 leaves. All these upper ones are nearly sessile, rhomboidal, 

 tapering rapidly to a point at each extremity, entire, ribbed or 

 veined, somewhat hairy above, shining and of a lighter green 

 beneath. Flowers numerous, very small, in a terminal umbel, 

 surrounded by four, white, roundish, rhomboidal, or broad-ovate, 

 pointed, nearly sessile, expanded bracts, resembling petals. 

 Calyx with four, minute teeth. Corolla with four, oblong, 

 pointed, revolute segments. Stamens four, diverging, bearing 

 white anthers. Style as long as the stamens, purple, surround- 

 ed by a dark purple disk. The scarlet berries are well known 

 to children, being pleasant, but without much taste. They are 

 sometimes made into puddings. But their chief value is to the 

 birds, as they seem not to be affected by the frost, and remain 

 on the stem into the winter. 



