304 



bending and sweeping branches, which turn conspic- 

 uously crimson in the winter. If you look closely at 

 these crimson branches, then, you will see that the 

 crimson is streaked and veined with fine, lightish or 

 grayish markings, giving a striated appearance to the 

 twigs. This appearance is present in summer, but not 

 so conspicuously as in winter. The mass is broad and 

 spreading and grows with a distinct tendency to fling 

 its branches over the ground and root again a trick 

 which is called in botany, stoloniferous. Just south 

 of the Cornus stolonifera stands a good' specimen of 

 the mock orange or sweet syringa. This you can tell 

 by its pointed, ovate leaves, with the veins depressed 

 on the upper surface and prominent beneath. West of 

 this syringa you will find the sorrell tree or sourwood. 

 Its leaves are alternate on the branch and resemble 

 those of the common peach leaf. They are of a dark, 

 shining green, from four to seven inches long, oblong- 

 lanceolate, with a short point. True to the tree that 

 bears them they are very, sour tasting. At the bases 

 they are rather wedge-shaped. The flowers of this tree 

 are very beautiful, by reason of their delicacy, borne on 

 long, terminal, panicles, which are very conspicuous. 

 They resemble somewhat the look of the flower-pani- 1 

 cles of the sweet pepper bush, slender fingers of bloom 

 (June or July), that at once arrest your attention. 

 These panicles are made up of delicate little urn-shaped 

 flowers, of a rich, cream-white, and narrowed daintily 

 about the throat, as if delicately tied with some fairy- 

 like constriction. The tiny little five-toothed flanges of 

 the corolla flare out squarely and the whole little urn is 



