2 On the Comus florida oj the United States. 



trasted witli the gloominess of the scenery from which I had just 

 emerged, made so strong an impression on me, that I have ever 

 since regarded the plant with a peculiar interest. 



Comus florida is probably the most generally distributed spe- 

 cies of its genus in our country. In this genus, which is one of 

 the family of Cornacece, there are about twenty species, of which 

 America has, north of Mexico, eleven ; two are peculiar to Mex- 

 ico ; three are found in Nepaul ; two in Japan ; two are found 

 in both Europe and Asia, and one is found in the north of both 

 hemispheres. They are all shrubs, with entire, deciduous leaves, 

 covered with adpressed hairs, the calyx four toothed, minute, 

 adhering to the ovary ; the petals four, distinct, oblong, inserted 

 with the calyx into an epigynous disk, drupes baccate, flowers in 

 cymes. In this State (Tennessee) we have at least five species ; 

 C» paniculata, C. stricta^ C. asperi/oUa, C. sericea, and the sub- 

 ject of my present paper. In addition to these, in the north 

 there are the species C. Canadensis, C. circinnata, C. alba, G, 

 alternifoUa, and C. sanguinea. The property of the bark of all 

 these is very bitter and tonic. Some of them have underground 

 stems, which send up branches dying annually down, others again 

 have true permanent stems, the wood of which is excessively hard, 

 a fact which has given rise to the name, from the Latin Cornu, a 

 horn, the wood being believed to be as hard and as durable as 

 horn. Hence the ancient Romans constructed spear-shafts and 

 other warlike instruments from it, and Virgil alluded to it as 

 hona belli comus. The wood of C, florida is not only remark- 

 able for its hardness, but for its extremely fine texture. 



Comus florida, the flowering dogwood, is the most beautiful 

 and showy plant of its genus. It is a round-headed small tree, 

 usually fifteen or twenty feet high, but often reaching a height of 

 twenty-five or thirty feet, and its stem a diameter of eight or nine 

 inches. The new shoots are of grayish green, covered with down, 

 those of the previous year are purple with slight rings, afterwards 

 changing to gray and streaked with brown. The stem is rough, 

 with short broken ridges, between which the bark is often divided 

 into regular plates. The branches are numerous, spreading, and 

 disposed with regularity, sometimes opposite, sometimes arising 

 by fours. The leaves are three inches long, opposite, oval, en- 

 tire, acuminated, and, at the base, abruptly tapering to a short 

 channelled footstalk. Smooth on their upper surface, their low 

 er is whitish, with hairs along the mid-ribs and veins, and a few 



