STANDLEY TREES AND SHRUBS OF MEXICO. 1087 



2. Cornus excelsa H. B. K. Nov. Gen. & Sp. 3: 430. 1818. 

 Cornus tolucensis H. B. K. Nov. Gen. & Sp. 3: 430. 1818. 

 Cornus decUnata Sess6 & Moc. Fl. Mex. 29. 1893. 



Cornus lanceolata Rose, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 8: 55. 1903. 



Tepic to San Luis Potosf, "Veracruz, and Chiapas; type collected between 

 Chalco and the City of Mexico. Guatemala. 



Shrub or small tree, 7.5 meters high or less, the branches purplish or brown, 

 puberulent at first ; leaves ovate or lance-ovate, 5 to 10 cm. long, long-acuminate, 

 thinly strigillose or pilosulous beneath or glabrate; cymes rather few-flow- 

 ered; petals white, 3.5 to 4.5 mm. long; fruit pale blue, 5 to 6 mm. in diam- 

 eter. "Palo de membrillo" (San Luis PotosI) ; " topoza " (Mexico, Veracruz) ; 

 " tepeacuilotl," " tepecuilo," " tepecuilote " (Valley of Mexico); " aceitunillo " 

 (Nueva Farmacopea Mexicana) ; "jazmfn cimarron " (Mexico). 



The bark is employed locally as a tonic and astringent. Palmer reports that 

 in San Luis Potosi the tough branches are used for fastening down the roofs 

 of houses. 



This species was reported by Sesse and Mocino as C. alba. 



3. Cornus urbiniana Rose, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 8: 53. 1903. 



Cornus florida urbiniana Wang, in Engl. Pflanzenreich IV, 229: 87. 1910. 



Veracruz ; type from Cerro de San Crist6bal, near Orizaba. 



Large shrub or small tree ; leaves ovate-elliptic, 7 to 14 cm. long, acuminate, 

 glabrate above, pale beneath and sericeous-strigillose ; flower heads peduncu- 

 late, the bracts white and petal-lilJe, oblong or narrowly obovate, 5 cm. long or 

 less ; fruit red. " Corona de Montezuma," " corona de San Pedro." 



This is very closely related to C. Horida L., the flowering dogwood, one of the 

 handsomest trees of the United States. The Mexican plant differs chiefly in 

 its narrower bracts, and it is doubtful whether it is more than a mere form of 

 Cornus florida, under which name it was reported by Hemsley. 



Cornus florida, as found in the United States, is a tree, sometimes 15 meters 

 high, with hard, tough, close-grained, red-brown wood, with a specific gravity of 

 about 0.81. The wood is much used for wheel hubs, tool handles, and other 

 articles, and has been used as a source of charcoal for gunpowder. The bark is 

 reputed to be tonic, astringent, and febrifuge, and was formerly employed in 

 the southern states as a substitute for quinine. The berries were used in the 

 same way. From the roots the Indians obtained a scarlet dye. The flowering 

 dogwood is frequently cultivated. The most showy form is Cornus florida 

 rubra Rehder, in which the bracts are red or pink. 



4. CoiTius disciflora DC. Prodr. 4: 273. 1830. 



Cornus grandis Schlecht. & Cham. Linnaea 5: 171. 1830. 



Cornus capitata Sessg & Moc. Fl. Mex. 28. 1893. Not C. capitata Wall. 1820. 



Cornus floccosa Wang. Repert. Nov. Sp. Fedde 6: 101. 1908. 



Tepic to Zacatecas, Mexico, Morelos, and Oaxaca. Central America. 



Shrub or small tree; leaves lanceolate or oblong-elliptic, 6 to 15 cm. long, 

 acute or acuminate, acute at base, pale beneath and sericeous-strigillose or 

 tomentulose ; flower heads pedunculate, 12 to 25-flowered ; petals whitish, 3 

 to 3.5 mm. long ; fruit ellipsoid, 12 to 14 mm. long, purplish. " Xochilcorona " 

 (Michoac^n, Veracruz, Oaxaca). 



Cornus floccosa is a form in which the leaves are floccose-villosulous be- 

 neath, while in the typical form all the hairs are straight and closely ap- 

 pressed. The extremes appear distinct, but there are intermediate forms, 

 and in some specimens in the National Herbarium both forms of pubescence 

 occur upon separate leaves of the same branch. 



