CORIS. 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



CORNUS. 



411 



and slender arching shoots, covered with 

 fresh green foliage and sprays of tiny 

 green flowers drooping prettily from 

 the leaf-axils. It is hardy even into 

 Scotland, where it dies down like an 

 herbaceous perennial. The flowers come 

 in slender racemes of 6 to 12 inches, 

 and towards autumn the tiny green 

 petals swell into juicy fruits, of a rich 

 purple colour in September and October, 

 when this is one of the most striking 

 of wall or border plants. New Zealand. 



C. TORMINALIS. A plant from the 

 Thibetan frontier of China, and quite 

 hardy in the south of Britain at least, 

 making a shrubby root-stock and her- 

 baceous stems of 2 or 3 feet, which die 

 back each winter. The bark is rough 

 and warty, and the shoots thickly set 

 with pairs of rounded, dull green leaves. 

 The brown and yellow flowers appear in 

 long racemes from the tips of the shoots, 

 differing in this from other kinds, in 

 which they burst from the leaf-axils. 

 These inconspicuous flowers give place 

 to glossy, orange-yellow fruits of great 

 beauty, crowded upon long tapering 

 spikes of 6 to 9 inches. These last 

 well upon the p'.ar.t, but are worthless 

 for cutting. 



CORIS (Montpelier C.}. C. mon- 

 speliensis is a pretty dwarf plant of the 

 Primrose order, about 6 inches high, 

 usually biennial in our gardens, thriving 

 on dry sunny parts of the rock garden, 

 in sandy soil, and among dwarf plants. 

 South of France. Seed. 



CORNUS (Dogweed : Cornel). Most 

 of the Dogwoods known in cultiva- 

 tion are shrubs or small trees. 

 Some are pretty shrubs, useful in the 

 park and pleasure garden, or along 

 watercourses, the shoots of some 

 giving fine colour in winter ; and there 

 are two very dwarf species for the 

 bog garden. 



C. ALBA, the white-fruited Dogwood, is 

 a native of Asia, growing to a height of 

 from 5 to 10 feet, with slender branches 

 clothed with bright-red bark, giving a 

 charming effect all through the year, 

 either in a mass or as a specimen plant 

 on a lawn or in the shrubbery. The 

 flowers, white or cream-coloured, are in 

 crowded cymes, followed by white fruits. 

 The variety Spathi is one of the finest of 

 shrubs, with coloured leaves. In spring 

 the leaves are bronzy, in summer deeply 

 and irregularly margined with gold. The 

 habit of the plant is vigorous, the variega- 

 tion constant, and the foliage does not 

 scorch in bright sunlight, as is the case 

 in not a few plants with golden variegated 

 leaves. 



C. BRETSCHNEIDERI. Native of China, 

 it was brought into prominent notice in 



1899, when a figure and description 

 appeared in Le Jar din. Since that time 

 ample opportunity has occurred of judging 

 its merits as an ornamental shrub, and 

 although this group of the family is some- 

 times despised for its flowering qualities, 

 it has the advantage of producing attrac- 

 tive fruit towards the end of August, the 

 berries being alternately white and bluish 

 in colour. Its bark has the familiar red 

 colouring of several other species in the 

 group, although it is less bright than that 

 of C. alba and its varieties. It can be 

 grown almost anywhere and in almost any 

 deeply-worked soil. By inserting cuttings 

 a foot long out of doors, in autumn or 

 winter, it is easily increased. It is of 

 vigorous habit, and requires plenty of 

 room. Has to be severely pruned to keep 

 it from smothering other subjects. 



C. CANADENSIS (Bunchberry) is a pretty 

 little plant with creeping underground 

 rhizomes and upright stems from 4 to 

 8 inches high, the leaves in a whorl of four 

 or six near the summit of the stems ; the 

 true flowers are minute, but the four rather 

 large white or cream-coloured bracts con- 

 spicuous. The berries are red, and show 

 well above the short stems : in taste they 

 are sweet and palatable. Japan and N. 

 America. 



C. CAPITATA (Strawberry-tree). This is 

 more widely known under the name of 

 Benthamiafragifera. It is a sub-evergreen 

 tree, a native of N. India and China. In 

 the gardens of Mr R. G. Lake, Trevarrick, 

 St Austell, some trees are about 40 feet 

 high, and the trunk is one of 5 feet in 

 diameter at 5 feet from the ground. There 

 are numbers of fine specimens at Trelissick 

 and in Devon and Cornwall. The large 

 bracts, white tinged with pink or rose, 

 make this one of the most beautiful trees 

 when in flower, and the large clear red 

 fleshy fruits somewhat resembling a 

 Strawberry. 



C. CIRCINATA. This is conspicuous by 

 reason of its large round leaves, which are 

 4 or 5 inches long and 3 inches or more 

 wide, and its clusters of bright-blue fruits, 

 each being about the size of a Pea. It is 

 3 feet or more rarely reaching 10 feet in 

 height, and has rather rigid erect stems 

 covered with warted bark, which is at first 

 pale green, and later becomes light brown 

 or purple. N. America. 



C. FLORIDA (Flowering Dogwood) is very 

 showy in flower, scarcely less so in fruit, 

 and beautiful in autumn, when the leaves 

 change colour before falling. Unfor- 

 tunately, we do not obtain sufficient sum- 

 mer heat to thoroughly ripen the wood, 

 and so the flowering of this species in 

 Britain is not common, although it was 

 one of the earliest amongst N. American 

 shrubs to find its way to British gardens. 



C. FLORIDA RUBRA. It is a source of 

 regret to shrub-lovers that the ordinary 

 C. florida rarely flowers in England, but 



