156 TREES OF NKW ENGLAND. 



COKNACK.i:. DOGWOOD FAMILY. 



Cornus florida, L. 



Flowering Dogwood. Boxwood. 



Habitat and Range.- Woodlands, rocky hillsides, moist, 

 gravelly ridges. 



Provinces of Quebec ;m<l Ontario. 



Maine, Fayette Ridge, Kennebec county; New Hamp- 

 shire, along the Atlantic coast and very near the Con- 

 necticut river, rarely farther north than its junction with 

 the West river ; Vermont, southern and southwestern sec- 

 tions, rare ; Massachusetts, occasional throughout the state, 

 common in the Connecticut river valley, frequent eastward; 

 Rhode Island and Connecticut, common. 



South to Florida ; west to Minnesota and Texas. 



Habit. A small tree, 15-30 feet high, with a trunk diam- 

 eter of 6-10 inches. The spreading branches form an open, 

 roundish head, the young twigs curving upwards at their 

 extremities. In spring, when decked with its abundant, 

 showy white blossoms, it is the fairest of the minor trees of 

 the forest; in autumn, scarcely less beautiful in the rich reds 

 of its foliage and fruit. 



Bark. Bark of trunk in old trees blackish, broken-ridged, 

 rough, often separating into small, firm, 4-angled or roundish 

 plates ; branches grayish, streaked with white lines ; season's 

 twigs purplish-green, downy ; taste bitter. 



Winter Buds and Leaves. Terminal leaf-buds narrowly 

 conical, acute ; flower-buds spherical or vertically flattened, 

 grayish. Leaves simple, opposite, 3-5 inches long, two-thirds 

 as wide, dark green above, whitish beneath, turning to reds, 

 purples, and yellows in the autumn, ovate to oval, nearly 

 smooth, with minute appressed pubescence on both surfaces ; 

 apex pointed ; base acutish ; veins distinctly indented above, 

 ribs curving upward and parallel ; leafstalk short-grooved. 



Inflorescence. May to June. Appearing with the unfolding 

 leaves in close clusters at the ends of the branches, each 



