CORNACEAE 677 



Field note. — Garrya buxifolia occurs on the flattish summit of Red Mt., northern Mendocino 

 Co., on the sides of broken-rock ledges. But one colony was noted in 1932, consisting of about 

 two dozen plants (Jepson 16,544). In Del Norte Co. it is an important component of chaparral 

 about Gasquet (Tracy). The following have somewhat larger leaves than the Eed Mt. plants: 

 Cold Spr., West Fork Woolly Creek, w. Siskiyou Co., Butler 40 ; Camp Six, Del Norte Co., M. S. 

 Baker 304. Ore. : Waldo, Howell. 



Refs. — Garrya buxifolia Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. 7:349 (1867), type loc. Red Mt., n. 

 Mendocino Co., Bolander. G. flavescens var, buxifolia Jepson, Man. 732 (1925). 



CORNACEAE. Dogwood Family 



Deciduous trees or shrubs, or some species low and merely suffrutescent. Leaves 

 opposite, simple, entire. Flowers perfect, regular, in cymes or heads. Calyx-tube 

 coherent with the ovary, its limb represented by 4 small teeth at the summit or none. 

 Petals 4, epigynous, valvate in bud. Stamens 4, alternate with the petals. Ovary 

 2-eelled with a single pendulous ovule in each cell ; style filiform ; stigma simple. 

 Fruit a drupe, the stone 2-celled with 1 seed in each cell. Embryo minute. — 

 Genera 10, species 100, all continents but mostly north temperate. 



Bibliog. — Coulter, J. M., & Evans, W. H., Revision of N. Am. Cornaceae (Bot. Gaz. 15:30-38, 

 8&-93,— 1890). Wangerin, W., Cornaceae in Engler, Pflzr. 4^:1-110, figs. 1-24,-1910. 



1. CORNUSL. Cornel. Dogwood 



Flowers greenish or white. — Species 47, North America, Europe and Asia, one 

 species in East Africa. (Latin cornu, a horn, on account of the hardness of the 

 wood.) 



Flowers appearing after the leaves, borne in cymes, the cymes not involucrate. 



Leaves lighter color beneath, minutely puberulent ; style glabrous ; drupe commonly white. 

 Leaves beneath with curly or spreading hairs; mostly low altitudes, throughout cis- 



montane Cal 1. C. calif ornica. 



Leaves beneath with short straight hairs often attached by the middle; mostly high 



Sierra Nevada 2. C. stolonifera. 



Leaves green, alike on both faces, nearly glabrous; style slightly pubescent; drupe bluish 



or pale 3. C. glabrata. 



Flowers appearing before or with the leaves, the inflorescence involucrate. 



Flowers yellowish, in sessile umbels with an involucre of 4 small caducous bracts ; drupe black. 



4. C. sessilis. 

 Flowers greenish, in heads, with a conspicuous involucre of 4 to 6 white petal-like bracts; 

 drupe red. 



Tree or shrub 5. C. nuttallii. 



Herb-like with creeping rootstock 6. C. canadensis. 



1. C. californica C. A. Mey. Creek Dogwood. Shrub 5 to 15 feet high with 

 purplish branches and branchlets ; leaf-blades commonly ovate, varying to ellipti- 

 cal, acute, thinly puberulent, 2 to 4 inches long ; cymes minutely and thinly puberu- 

 lent, ly-z to 2 inches broad; petals oblong, acute, 2 lines long; styles glabrous; 

 drupe white, subglobose, 3 lines in diameter ; stone mostly oblique, somewhat flat- 

 tened, with furrowed edges, each side with 4 less obvious or shallower channels. 



Canon stream banks and moist flats, and along rivers in the valleys, 5 to 2500 

 (or 6000) feet : Sierra Nevada from Shasta Co. to Tulare Co. ; delta region of the 

 Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers ; Coast Ranges from Siskiyou Co. to San Luis 

 Obispo Co.; coastal Southern California (rare). Apr.-Aug., fr. July-Nov. 



Note on variation. — Comus californica, with a wide horizontal and altitudinal range in Cali- 

 fornia and with considerable diversity of habitat, is subject to much leaf variation, as to size 

 and shape and in a minor degree as to presence or amount of pubescence. Pronounced variation 

 may occur in a single locality. In the shade of Redwoods on upper San Leandro Creek, Oakland 

 Hills, the leaves become thin, 4 to 6 inches long and 2^^ to 3% inches wide {Jepson 6212) ; a few 

 yards away, under full insolation, shrubs bear thickish leaves mostly 1 to 2 inches long. In the 

 woods of Pinus muricata at Inverness leaves become TV2 inches long and 5 inches wide {Jepson 

 1714). The shape of leaves on the sterile shoots and those of the flowering branches often differ 

 markedly. The flowering period is extremely long, extending from April to August. The drupe 

 is rarely blue (Rich Pt., Middle Fork Feather River, Jepson 10,629). 



