274 CORNACE^E. Cornus. 



ORDER XLVII. CORNACE.SI. 



Trees or shrubs, rarely herbs, with simple and entire mainly opposite leaves, no 

 stipules, and flowers in cymes (or capitate clusters) or spikes ; the valvate petals and 

 stamens 4 and epigynous in fertile flowers (the former sometimes wanting) ; calyx 

 adnate to the 1 - 2-celled ovary, which becomes a 1 - 2-seeded drupe or berry in 

 fruit. Seed suspended, anatropous, with a minute embryo in hard albumen. 



An order of a dozen genera and less than a hundred species, widely distributed, but mainly in 

 the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere ; most related to the first tribe of Caprifoliacece, 

 but with distinct petals valvate in the bud. Many are cultivated for ornament. The bark of 

 Cornus is bitter, and has been used as a substitute for Cinchona. 



1. Cornus. Flowers perfect, in cymes or a head-like cluster. Petals 4. Style 1 : stigma ter- 



minal. Ovary 2-celled. 



2. Garry a. Flowers dioscious, in catkin-like spikes. Petals none. Styles 2, stigmatic down 



the inner side. Ovary 1 -celled, 2-ovuled. 



1. CORNUS, Linn. DOGWOOD. CORNEL. 



Flowers perfect. Calyx minutely 4-toothed. Petals 4, oblong or ovate, valvate 

 in the bud. Stamens 4, with slender filaments. Style slender : stigma capitate or 

 truncate. Drupe ovoid or oblong, with a 2-celled 2-seeded stone. Cotyledons foli- 

 aceous. Shrubs or perennial herbs, rarely arborescent ; leaves opposite, entire ; 

 flowers small, in dichotomous cymes or involucrate heads, white, yellowish or 

 greenish. 



Mostly of the northern hemisphere, a single species growing in Peru ; about 25 species, of 

 which 15 are found in the United States. 



* Flowers greenish, in a close cyme or head, surrounded by a conspicuous involucre of 



4 to 6 white petal-like bracts : fruit red. 



1. C. Canadensis, Linn. Stem simple, herbaceous, 3 to 8 inches high, from a 

 slender creeping subterranean rootstock : leaves mostly in an apparent whorl of 6 at 

 the summit, slightly pubescent with appressed hairs, nearly sessile, ovate to oblong, 

 acute at each end, 1 to 2^ inches long ; in the middle of the stem a pair of smaller 

 leaves, and scale-like bracts below : peduncle about an inch long : involucral bracts 

 4, ovate, 4 to 8 lines long : ovary silky : fruit globular, 2 lines in diameter. 



Mendocino County (Bolander), in swamps ; north to Sitka and across the continent. 



2. C. Nuttallii, Audubon. Usually a small tree, sometimes becoming 50 to 70 

 feet high : bark smooth : leaves more or less pubescent, obovate, 3 to 5 inches long, 

 acute at each end : involucre of 4 to 6 obovate to oblong bracts, 1^ to 3 inches 

 long, abruptly acute to acuminate, yellowish or white, often tinged with red : flow- 

 ers numerous, in dense heads 6 to 9 lines broad : fruit crowded among the large 

 abortive ovaries, 5 to 6 lines long, crowned by the broad limb of the calyx. Nut- 

 tall, Sylva, iii. 51, t. 97 ; Newberry, Pacif. E. Ptep. vi. 24. 



From Monterey and Mendocino to Plumas counties, and northward to Fraser River. A showy 

 tree, or large shrub, flowering in May, the flowers followed by large clusters of crimson berries. 

 Much resembling the eastern C. fiorida, and apparently even more worthy of cultivation. Wood 

 close-grained and very hard. 



* * Flowers yellowish, in sessile umbels, appearing before the leaves, involucrate with 



4 small caducous bracts. 



3. C. sessilis, Torr. A shrub, 10 to 15 feet high, with green bark : leaves 

 approximate, ovate, shortly acuminate, pale beneath and appressed silky-pubescent : 

 umbel terminal, becoming lateral by the development of the shoot ; pedicels numer- 



