CORNACEAE 219 



CORNUS FOEMINA Miller 

 Gray Dogwood 



The Gray Dogwood, fig. 57, is an erect, quite leafy shrub 

 3 to 7 feet high, with smooth gray branches and light reddish- 

 brown to gray, more or less angled branchlets. The ovate 

 to lanceolate leaves have, as a rule, 3 or 4 pairs of veins, are 

 variable in size, reaching 3 inches long by l]/?, inches wide, 

 and are generally long-acuminate at the apex and wedge shaped 

 or rounded at the base. The surface is short-pubescent with 

 appressed, colorless hairs above and below and also mealy be- 

 neath. The inflorescence is a convex cyme, 1 to 2 inches wide, 

 which is sparsely pubescent with appressed colorless hairs. 



The flowers, which appear during June, mature in August 

 and September as moist, pulpy, flattened-globose drupes less 

 than 14 irich wide, containing stones somewhat compressed 

 laterally, longer than wide, and marked with shallow furrows 

 which reach from the apex to the middle or below. 



Distribution. — The Gray Dogwood grows in moist or dry, 

 sandy or gravelly soils along the shores of lakes and streams, 

 along roadsides and fences, and in clearings in woods. It ranges 

 ^from ]\Iaine to Minnesota and south to the Carolinas and 

 Arkansas. In Illinois, it ranges throughout the state and is one 

 of the most abundant dogwoods. 



CORNUS ALTERNIFOLIA Linnaeus filius 

 Alternate-Leaved Dogwood Pagoda Dogwood 



The Alternate-Leaved Dogw^ood, fig. 57, is an erect shrub 

 with a spreading top, which grows to a height of 15 feet and 

 has coarse stems up to 2 inches in diameter. The branches 

 and branchlets are smooth, usually greenish, and bear alter- 

 nate or, rarely, a few opposite leaves, which are as a rule 

 clustered at the end of the branches on petioles ]/> to 2 inches 

 long. The leaf blades are mostly oval but vary to ovoid or 

 obovate and are li/ to 4 inches long by ^ to 2i/^ inches wide, 

 short pointed at the apex, narrowed or, less often, rounded at 

 the base, and yellowish green. The leaf surface soon becomes 

 smooth above but remains woolly and mealy beneath. 



The flowers, which bloom from early in May until early in 

 June, are borne in flat, small cymes. The thinly pulpy, globose 



