COR 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



COR 



367 



roundish, incumbent. Pistil: germen roundish, inferior; 

 style filiform, length of the corolla ; stigma obtuse. Peri- 

 carp : drupe roundish, uuabilicated. Seed : nut heart-shaped, 

 or oblong, two-celled. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Involucre 

 generally four-leaved. Petals : four, superior. Drupe -. with 

 a two-celled nut. The species are, 



1. Cornus Florida ; Great (lowered Dogwood. Arboreous: 

 involucre very large ; leaflets obcordate. It seldom rises 

 above seven or eight feet high, but is generally well fur- 

 nished with large leaves. Although it be very hardy.it neither 

 flowers freely, nor produces berries in England. There is a 

 variety of this species, with a rose-coloured involucre, which 

 was found wild in Virginia. They are great ornaments to 

 the woods of America, by their e;irly flowering in the spring, 

 before the leaves appear, and by their berries hanging all the 

 winter on the trees. The wood is white, has a close grain, 

 and is very hard, like that of Box. It flowers in April and 

 May, and is common in our nurseries, where it is known by 

 the name of VirginianDogwood. All the sorts of Dogwood 

 may be propagated by their seeds, which, if sown soon after 

 they ripen in autumn, will generally appear in the following 

 spring ; but if not sown in autumn, they will lie a year in the 

 ground before the plants will come up, and in dry seasons 

 have been known to be two years in making their appearance ; 

 for which reason, the ground where they have been planted 

 ought not to be disturbed. When they spring up, let them 

 be watered in dry weather, and weeded, and in the following 

 autumn removed into beds in the nursery, where they may 

 stay two years, and at the end of that time will be fit to 

 transplant where they are designed to remain : the best 

 season for transplanting them is in autumn. They are also 

 propagated by suckers, and laying down the branches. Most 

 of the Dogwoods produce plenty of suckers, especially when 

 planted on a moist light soil. These suckers may be taken 

 off from the old plants in autumn, and planted into a nursery 

 for a year or two, and may then be finally transplanted into 

 those places where they are destined to remain. But the 

 gardener ought to be informed, that the plants produced 

 from suckers seldom have so good roots as those which are 

 propagated by layers, and are not so valuable as the latter 

 plants, because they are also so very liable to put out suckers 

 themselves. Some of the scatter species, from America, are 

 often engrafted into the fourth or fifth species. 



2. Cornus Mascula ; Cornelian Cherry. Arboreous : 

 umbels equalling the involucre ; leaves serrate ; shoots ash- 

 coloured, and pubescent ; leaves in pairs, ovate-lanceolate, 

 subhirsute. The flowers come out very early in the spring 

 before the leaves ; corolla yellow, spreading, and at length 

 reflected, longer than the stamina ; fruit oblong, the size of 

 an olive, bright scarlet, sometimes yellow. It is a shrub in 

 its wild state, and about four or five feet bight, but advances, 

 when cultivated, into a tree twenty feet in height and is very 

 common in our plantations of shrubs. If the season be mild, 

 the flowers will come out in the beginning of February; and 

 though there be no great beauty in them, yet they come 

 forth in great numbers at a time when few other flowers 

 appear. It was formerly cultivated for the fruit, which was 

 used to make tarts, and a rob de cornis was kept in the shops. 

 Meyrick says, that the dried fruit, or the juice of it, boiled 

 up with sugar, is an excellent cooling astringent medicine, 

 and of great utility in fevers attended with purging. Cornel, 

 says Evelyn, grows with us of good bulk and stature, and is 

 exceedingly recommended for its durableness in wheel-work, 

 pins, and wedges, in which it wears like the hardest iron. 

 Native of Russia, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Carniola, 

 France, Piedmont, and the Milanese. 



3. Cornus Japonica. Arboreous : umbels exceeding the 

 involucre; leaves serrate; stem erect, six feet in height; 

 branches opposite, striated, ash-coloured, smooth ; flowers 

 terminating, umbelled, white. Native of Japan. 



4. Cornus Sanguinea; Common Dogwood. Arboreous : 

 cymes depressed ; branches straight ; leaves ovate, concolor. 

 Height from four or five to eight or ten feet ; leaves opposite, 

 quite entire, but sometimes with the edge waving. The fruit 

 is globular, dark purple, very bitter, oily, and styptic. Na- 

 tive of Europe, found in hedges, especially in a calcareous 

 soil. It flowers in June, and the berries ripen in August. 

 It has a variety of names in different parts of England, as 



female cornel, dog-berry tree, hound's-tree, hound' s-berry tree, 

 prickwood, from its use in making skewers, gaten or gatten- 

 tree, gater or gatter-lree. Mr. Miller informs us, that the 

 fruit of this tree is often brought into our markets, and sold 

 for Buckthorn berries ; from which, however, it may be easily 

 distinguished, there being only one stone in this, whereas the 

 Buckthorn has four stones ; the latter also stains paper green, 

 but the juice of the former is purple. Dogwood is called 

 virga sanguinea, or bloody- rod, by old authors, from the fine 

 red colour of its young shoots. The wood, according to 

 Evelyn's account, is like the Cornel for compactness, and is 

 used for cart-timber and rustic instruments, for mill-cogs, 

 spokes, bobbins for bone-lace, for the best tooth-picks, and 

 for butcher's skewers. Being hard and even, it is also fit for 

 the turner. In foreign countries, a lamp-oil is extracted from 

 the berries, by boiling them in water, and afterwards press- 

 ing them. Baron Haller observes, that these berries are very 

 bitter and styptic, but not employed in medicine. 



5. Cornus Alba ; finite-berried Dogwood. Arboreous : 

 cymes depressed ; branches recurved ; leaves broad-ovate, 

 hoary underneath. Stem woody, putting out many lateral 

 branches near the ground, so that unless it be trained while 

 young, it generally spreads low. During summer the branches 

 are brownish, but change in winter to a fine red. The flowers 

 are produced in large cymes, at the extremity of every shoot, 

 towards the end of May, and are white. Native of Siberia, 

 and of North America. 



6. Cornus Sericea ; Blue-berried Dogwood. Arboreous : 

 cymes naked, depressed ; branches patulous ; leaves ovate, 

 ferruginous,silky underneath. This shrub grows two fathoms 

 in height, with an upright, round, branched, gray stem ; 

 branches round, opposite, spreading, dusky purple ; flowers 

 pedicelled, horizontal, white, with the disk at first white, 

 but afterwards brown or dark purple. The leaves are nar- 

 rower and deeper veined than in the fifth species ; the flowers 

 grow in smaller cymes, and the fruit is smaller, and of a deep 

 blue colour when ripe. The shoots are of a beautiful red 

 colour in winter ; and in summer, the leaves being large, of 

 a whitish colour on their underside, and the bunches of white 

 flowers growing at the extremity of every branch, renderthis 

 a valuable shrub; and in autumn, when the large bunches nt" 

 blueberries are ripe, it makes a very beautiful appearance. 

 Native of North America. 



X 7. Cornus Alternifolia; Alternate-leaved Dogwood. Arbo- 

 reous: leaves alternate ; branches subdeterminate, round, 

 glossy, dark purple, with whitish vague dots or lines ; leaves 

 petioled, ovate, acute, quite entire, glossy, marked with lines, 

 pale underneath. The branches are sometimes red, and 

 sometimes green. Native of North America. 



8. Cornus Suecica ; Herbaceous Dogwood. Herbaceous, 

 with branches in pairs. This elegant plant is about six 

 inches high ; stem four cornered, thinly branched, forked at 

 top; leaves oval, opposite, smooth, sessile, ribbed, with live 

 nerves, the lower ones rounder. The involucre consists of 



