Addisonia 41 



(Plate 101) 

 CORNUS MAS UBR>*^;^ 



Cornelian Cherry j^.j ^ .. — . 



Native of southern Europe and Asia Minor <3,-.«.)up« 



Family Cornac^a^ Dogwood Family 



Cornus Mas L. Sp. PI. 117. 1753. 



A shrub or small tree, of dense growth, up to twenty feet tall. 

 The young branchlets are minutely appressed-pubescent, in age 

 becoming glabrous. The leaves are opposite, the petioles a quarter 

 inch long or less; the blades, which are up to three inches long and 

 two inches wide, are elliptic to ovate, acuminate into a usually 

 obtuse apex, at the base commonly rounded or sometimes cuneate, 

 and with both surfaces appressed-pubescent, the lower paler and 

 with tufts of ashen hairs in the axils. The yellow flowers, in which 

 the sepals, petals and stamens are usually in fours, appear before 

 the leaves, and are in opposite clusters of a dozen or so, terminating 

 short branchlets, each cluster subtended by an involucre of four 

 broadly elliptic brownish obtuse bracts which are appressed-pubes- 

 cent. The pedicels and calyx-tube, the latter adherent to the 

 ovary, are appressed-hairy. The calyx-lobes are small and tri- 

 angular. The lanceolate petals are spreading or somewhat reflexed. 

 The stamens are shorter than the petals and alternate with them. 

 The scarlet fruit is about three quarters of an inch long. 



In the latter part of April or early May, in the neighborhood of 

 New York City, the flowers of this plant appear, the absence of 

 the foliage at that time making the flowers all the more conspicuous. 

 The bright flowers are followed by a dark green fohage, which, in 

 contrast with the scarlet fruit of the later months, again makes of 

 this plant a most striking object. It is effective as an individual 

 specimen or for mass planting. The specimen from which the 

 illustration was prepared has been in the collections of the New 

 York Botanical Garden since 1906. 



The fruit though edible is not palatable, but is sometimes used in 

 the countries where it grows naturally as a substitute for olives. 

 It is also employed there for preserves, and is said to be made use of 

 by the Turks for flavoring sherbet. 



This species is closely related to another, Cornus officinalis, of 

 Japan, which was illustrated at plate 89 of this work. The tufts 

 of hairs in the leaf-axils of this are ashen, readily distinguishing it 

 from the other in which the hair-tufts are brown. 



Ge;org^ V. Nash. 



Expi^ANATioN OP Plate. Fig. 1. — Flowering branch. Fig. 2, — Flower, X 4. 

 Fig. 3. — Fruiting branch. 



. IL'' 



