Cornus Cornel Dogwood. 



285 



height of about fifteen feet, with slender branches and a 

 well-rounded head. Its chief beauty consists in the small, 

 bright yellow flowers which appear in early spring in 

 advance of the foliage. These blossoms are in compact 

 clusters which extend the whole length of the branches, 

 giving the tree a very strik- 

 ing appearance. As it is one 

 of our very first bloomers, 

 it occupies an important 

 place in ornamental plant- 

 ing. There are two varie- 

 ties of this plant which are 

 especially beautiful. One, 

 C. ui. variegata, has its foli- 

 age strikingly marked with 

 pure white, and the other, 

 C. m. elegantissima, is white 

 with light and yellow shad- 

 ings. Both are desirable 

 garden plants. Thomas 

 Meehan in writing of this 

 plant takes occasion to say : 

 "In this dogwood we can 

 see how Nature makes species ! We are all familiar 

 with the white dogwood of the woods, Cornus florida 

 in the east, and Cornus nuttallii on the Pacific slope. 

 We know well the four broad, white bracts which lend 

 the dogwood flower its chief charm. We see in the cor- 

 nelian cherry the same four bracts, only that more cor- 

 rectly they are the scales that protected the flowers in 



CORNUS ELEQANTISSIMA. 



