CORNUS. 231 



are very ornamental and hardy shrubs, mostly North American 

 plants, and are prized, not only for their flowers and berries of 

 different colors, but for their green, red, purple, or striped barks, 

 which have a fine effect in winter, especially among ever- 

 greens. 



Cornus alternifolia. Alternate-leaved Cornel. "A beau- 

 tiful shrub, six or eight feet high ; sometimes a graceful small 

 tree, of fifteen, twenty, or even twenty-five feet high, throwing 

 off, at one or more points, several branches, which, slightly 

 ascending, diverge, and form nearly horizontal umbrageous 

 stages, or flats of leaves, so closely arranged as to give almost 

 a perfect shade. Recent shoots, of a shining light-yellowish- 

 green, with oblong scattered dots. The older branches, of a 

 rich polished green, striped with gray. Flowers in an irregu- 

 larly branched head, yellowish-white; fruit, blue-black. A 

 beautiful plant, with a variety of character. It grows naturally 

 in most woods, or on the sides of hills ; but, when cultivated, 

 flourishes in almost any kind of soil, and even in dry situa- 

 tions. It flowers in May and June, and the fruit ripens in 

 October." 



C. florida. The Flowering Dogwood. This species 

 is more of a tree than any of those described, and one of the 

 most desirable of all the genus. It is a conspicuous object, in 

 some of our woods, the last of May. The tree is then loaded 

 with a profusion of its large, showy, white flowers, which are 

 produced at the ends of the branches. What is generally taken 

 for the flower is not in reality such. The flowers are small, and 

 without much interest, except to the botanist. Twelve or more 

 of them are clustered together in a head, and surrounded by a 

 whorl of four large white floral leaves, which constitutes the 

 principal beauty of the flower. These floral leaves are nerved, 

 somewhat heart-shaped, shaded with flesh color, or purple ; the 

 fruit is of a bright-scarlet. 



" The leaves early begin to change to purple, and turn to a 

 rich scarlet, or crimson, above, with a light-russet beneath ; or 

 k o crimson and buff, or orange ground, above, with a glaucous- 



