712 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



style stout, tapering, reflexed above the middle, and revoliite into aclosecoiL Fruit 

 ripening early in the autumn, on slender drooping stalks 3'-4' in length, oblong or 

 slif'htly obovate, crowned with the pointed remnants of the style, dark purple, marked 

 by conspicuous scattered pale dots, and 1' long, with thick tough skin and thin acid 

 flesh; stone obovate, rounded at the narrow apex, pointed at the base, flattened, light 

 brown or nearly white, and about 10-ridged, the ridges acute and wing-like, with 

 thin separable margins, and sometimes united by short intermediate ridges. 



A tree, 80-100 high, with a trunk 3-4 in diameter above the greatly enlarged 

 tapering base, comparatively small spreading branches forming a narrow oblong or 

 pyramidal head, stout pithy branchlets dark red and coated with pale tomentum 

 when they first appear, soon becoming glabrous or nearly so, and in their first winter 

 lio-ht or bright red-brown and marked by small scattered pale lenticels and by the 

 conspicuous elevated nearly orbicular leaf-scars displaying the ends of 3 large fibro- 

 vascular bundles, and thick corky roots. "Winter-buds: terminal nearly globose, 

 with broad ovate light chestnut-brown scales keeled on the back and rounded and 

 apiculate at the apex, those of the inner ranks accrescent and at maturity ovate- 

 oblong or obovate-oblong, rounded at the apex, 1' or more long, and bright yellow; 

 axillary minute, obtuse, nearly imbedded in the bark. Bark of the trunk about Y 

 thick, dark brown, longitudinally furrowed, and roughened on the surface by small 

 scales. Wood light, soft, not strong, close-grained, difficult to split, light brown or 

 often nearly white, with thick sapwood sometimes composed of more than 100 layers 

 of annual growth; used in the manufacture of wooden ware, broom-handles, and 

 wooden shoes, and largely for fruit and vegetable boxes The wood of the roots is 

 sometimes employed instead of cork for the floats of nets. 



Distribution. Deep swamps inundated during a part of every year; coast region 

 of the Atlantic states from southern Virginia to northern Florida, through the Gulf 

 states to the valley of the Nueces River, Texas, and through Arkansas and southern 

 and southeastern Missouri to western Kentucky and Tennessee, and to the valley 

 of the lower Wabash River, Illinois; of its greatest size in the Cypress swamps of 

 western Louisiana and eastern Texas. 



2. CORNUS, L. Dogwood. 



Trees and shrubs, with astringent bark, opposite or rarely alternate deciduous 

 leaves conduplicate or involute in the bud. Flowers small, perfect, white, greenish 

 white or yellow; calyx-tube minutely 4-toothed, the teeth valvate in the bud; disk 

 pulvinate, depressed in the centre, or obsolete; petals 4, valvate in the bud, oblong- 

 ovate, inserted on the margin of the disk; stamens 4, alternate with the petals; 

 filaments slender, exserted; ovary 2-celled; style exserted, simple, columnar, crowned 

 with a single capitate or truncate stigma; raphe dorsal. Fruit ovoid or oblong; 

 flesh thin and succulent; nut bony or crustaceous, 2-celled, 2 or sometimes 1-seeded. 

 Seed compressed; embryo straight or slightly incurved. 



Cornus with forty to fifty species is widely distributed through the three continents 

 of the northern hemisphere, and south of the equator is represented in Peru by a single 

 species. Of the sixteen or seventeen species of the United States four are arborescent. 

 Cornus is rich in tannic acid, and the bark and occasionally the leaves and unripe 

 fruit are used as tonics, astringents, and febrifuges. Of exotic species, Cornus mas, L., 

 is often planted in the eastern states as an ornamental tree, and its edible fruit is 

 used in Europe in preserves and cordials. The wood of Cornus is hard, close-grained, 

 and durable, and is used in turnery and for charcoal. 



