232 BRECK'S BOOK OF FLOWERS. 



purple beneath. These, surrounding the scarlet bunches of 

 berries, make the tree as beautiful an object, at the close of 

 autumn, as it was in the opening summer." 



C. circinata. Round-leaved Cornel. " A spreading shrub, 

 usually not erect, from four to six, sometimes eight or ten, feet 

 high, with straight, slender, spreading branches. Young shoots, 

 green, profusely blotched with purple; old shoots, pale, yellow- 

 ish-green, or purplish, thickly dotted with prominent, wart-like 

 dots, or sometimes smooth." The flowers white, in roundish, 

 spreading, terminal heads, or cymes, in May ; fruit blue, turning 

 to whitish color ; ripe in October. 



C. stolonifera. Red-stemmed Cornel. "A handsome 

 plant, conspicuous at all seasons of the year, but especially 

 towards the end of winter, for its rich red, almost blood- 

 colored stems and shoots. The main stem is usually prostrate 

 upon the ground, beneath withered leaves, throwing down 

 roots, and sending up slender, erect branches, from five to six 

 or eight feet high ; flowers white, in spreading cymose clusters ; 

 fruit white, or lead colored." 



C. paniculata. Panicled Cornel. A shrub, about six 

 feet high, with erect branches, dotted, or speckled. " The 

 cymes, or heads of flowers, are very numerous, on long, slen- 

 der, pale-yellow stems, with irregular branches." Flowers, 

 white, in May and June, succeeded by white fruit, which ma- 

 tures in August and September, when the fruit-stalk is of a 

 delicate pale-scarlet." 



CRATJEGUS. 



The Thorn. 



In relation to this genus Mr. Emerson remarks: "It is 

 found that a greater variety of beautiful small trees and orna- 

 mental shrubs can be formed of the several species of Thom, 

 than of any kind of tree whatever. Thus they give persons, 

 whose grounds are not extensive, the means of ornamenting 



