Vermont Shrubs and Woody Vines 145 



1. Flowers in a close head, appearing like a single large blossom 

 1 to 3 inches across, with small greenish flowers in the center 

 surrounded by four large petal-like white leaves (in- 

 volucre) ; fruit bright red 2. 



1. Flowers white in a broad, flat, open, cluster; fruit white or 



blue 3. 



2. A large shrub or small tree of 10 to 30 feet. 



Flowering dogwood. 



2. Small, less than 1 foot high.. Bunch-berry. 



3. Leaves alternate Alternate-leaved dogwood. 



3. Leaves opposite 4. 



4. Leaves broadly ovate (egg-shaped) often nearly round; fruit 



light blue Round-leaved dogwood. 



4. Leaves narrower; fruit pale blue or blue-white 5. 



5. Twigs, leaf stalks and lower leaf-surfaces silky-downy, often 



rusty; fruit pale blue Silky dogwood. 



5. Twigs smooth and leaves smooth or nearly so; fruit white or 



lead-color 6. 



6. Branches red or purplish, leaves rounded at base. 



Red-osier dogwood. 

 6. Branches gray, leaves tapering at base Panicled dogwood. 



flowering dogwood. Corniis ilorida L. 



This is the most showy of the dogwoods and is known and 

 famed for its beauty wherever it occurs. It is common from 

 Massachusetts southward, but in Vermont it occurs only sparing- 

 ly in the southeastern and southwestern counties. It will, however, 

 grow if introduced farther north and deserves to be so planted 

 much more commonly than has yet been done. It is a clean, 

 shapely bush or small tree, and the profusion of its snowy white 

 flower clusters in late spring and of scarlet fruit in the fall makes 

 it a conspicuous and charming feature of the landscape. So safe 

 a harbinger of spring is it, that the Indians taught the early 

 settlers to plant their corn when the dogwood blossomed. 

 Many interesting uses have been made of the flowering dog- 

 wood other than for ornament. Its bark supplies an excel- 

 lent tonic, said almost to rival (piinine. Indeed the early 

 botanical explorer, Peter Kalm. says that the colonists had 

 such faith in the virtues of dogwood that "when the cause fell 



