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longer catkins of staminate (pollen bearing) flowers, 

 than our native chestnut. These long, spike-like, stam- 

 inate catkins of the chestnut are very beautiful, in the 

 height of their bloom, seeming to cover the tree with 

 cream-white tufts. These staminate catkins are long, 

 greenish spikes along which the tiny little stamen 

 clusters are borne, in small, close, creamy bunches. 

 The fertile or pistillate flowers are inconspicuous. If 

 you look close you will find them at the bases of the 

 sterile (staminate) catkins, highest on the branches, or 

 rather nearest the ends of the branches. 



Cornus sericea. (Swamp Dogwood. Silky Dogwood. 

 Kinnikinnik. No. 23.) You will find a handsome mass 

 of this shrub on the southerly side of the Walk which 

 forks east and west. The west branch runs under an 

 Arch to follow on beside the Reservoir ; the east branch 

 skirts the broad and open stretch of green that beds the 

 southerly side of the Drive, south of the Metropolitan 

 Museum of Art. The most distinguishing feature of 

 this shrub is its leaves, which are silky, hairy or pubes- 

 cent, especially on the undersides. From this the shrub 

 is called silky dogwood. Its branchlets are purplish, 

 often peculiarly marked with purple above and green 

 below. The shrub blooms in late spring or early sum- 

 mer in compact, flat heads, or cymes, of white flowers. 

 A cyme is usually a flat cluster of flowers in which the 

 central flower opens first and the others after. This 

 blooming, or inflorescence, as it is termed botanically, 

 is called centrifugal, i. e. from the center outward, and 

 is the distinguishing feature of the cyme. The indi- 

 vidual flowers in the flat-topped clusters of the shrub's 



