N. ORD.—CORNACE&. 74 
GENUS —CORNUS,* TOURN. 
SEX. SYST.—TETRANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 
CORNUS FLORIDA. 
FLOWERING DOG WOOD. 
SYN.—CORNUS FLORIDA, LINN.; BENTHAMIDIA FLORIDA, SPACH. 
COM. NAMES.—FLOWERING DOGWOOD, DOG TREE, BOX TREE, NEW 
ENGLAND BOXWOOD, CORNEL, BITTER REDBERRY ; (FR.) CORNUIL- 
LIER A GRANDES FLEURS; (GER.) GROSSBLUTHIGE CORNEL. 
A TINCTURE OF THE FRESH BARK OF CORNUS FLORIDA, LINN. 
Description.—This small but beautiful forest tree, grows to a height of from 
10 to 30 feet; its form is usually somewhat bent, scraggy, and loosely branched ; 
but if transplanted when young to open places, it grows into a beautiful full, 
umbrella-like tree, with an immense spread of branches. ark greyish, cracked 
into small, more or less rectangular pieces; that of the branches is smooth, 
red, and shows strongly the scars of previous leaves. /n/florescence terminal, 
peduncled, involucrate, greenish heads ; zzvo/ucre white and showy; /odes 4, peta- 
loid, obcordate or furnished with deep notches, having a discolored and thickened 
margin. Flowers perfect, appearing with the leaves; ca/yx tubular ; odes 4, minute, 
triangular and somewhat obtuse; fe¢a/s 4, oblong, obtuse, spreading, but at length 
recurved in such a manner as to cause each flower, when magnified, to bear great 
resemblance to a plain Ionic capital. Stamens 4, erect; filaments slender and 
filiform; anthers oval, versatile, 2-celled. Style erect, slender, clavate, shorter 
than the stamens; sfgma terminal, obtuse. /7uzt a few oval, red drupes, contain- 
ing each a 2-celled and 2-seeded nutlet. 
Cornacess.—This small order is composed of shrubs or trees (rarely herbs) 
having the following characters: Leaves mostly opposite, rarely alternate; stipules 
none. J/nflorescence cymose, Or (in two species of Cornus) capitate and subtended 
by a showy, white involucre ; flowers perfect or polygamous. Calyx tubular and 
coherent with the ovary; “m6 minute, 4-toothed. eéa/s valvate in the bud, equal 
in number to the calyx teeth or sometimes wanting. Stamens as many as the petals 
and alternate with:them; in the perfect flowers they are borne on the margin of 
an epigynous disk ; filaments usually ascending, sometimes erect. Ovary I to 
2-celled; ovules one in each cell, anatropous, hanging from the apex of its cell; 
styles united into one. Fruita 1 to 2-seeded drupe; seeds oval; ¢esta coriaceous ; 
albumen sarcous; embryo axial, nearly the length of the albumen; cotyledons 
foliaceous. 
* Cornu, a horn, alluding to the density of the wood. 
