CARROT FAMILY 161 



DOGWOOD FAMILY (Cornaceae) 



Shrubs or trees. Leaves opposite, entire. Flowers small, white 

 or greenish, petals 4, stamens 4. Fruit a small drupe. 



Dogwood (Genus Cornus) 



The beautiful flowering dogwood, C. florida, whose com- 

 pact clusters of tiny flowers are surrounded by showy 

 involucres of four broad, petal-like white bracts, is com- 

 mon in northern Florida and in the northern part of the 

 peninsula, and is found occasionally as far south as 

 Bartow. 



The common dogwood of southern Florida is the less 

 conspicuous C. stricta, a shrub or small tree that grows 

 in swampy places and blooms in spring in flat-topped ter- 

 minal clusters of small white flowers. The leaves, which 

 are pointed at both ends, are from one to four inches 

 long. The small globose fruit is pale blue. 



CARROT FAMILY (UmhelUferae (Ammiaceae)) 



Herbaceous plants. Leaves alternate. Flowers tiny, in umbela 

 or in dense heads. Sepals, petals, and stamens 5 each. 



The flower-hunter who tastes an unknown plant to de- 

 termine its family, or smells the bruised leaves for the 

 same purpose, learns to recognize the characteristic taste 

 and odor of the carrot family. The species are difficult 

 to analyze, nor are they, in general, conspicuous enough 

 to attract attention, or to excite curiosity in regard to 

 their names. 



The flower-clusters of the majority are formed of sev- 

 eral short slender stalks that spring from a common center 

 and bear each a tiny flower at the tip. When several 

 such umbels rise from a common center the umbel is 



