THE COENEL. 



Com' lis sanguin'ea L. 



In the Cornel we have to do with the one woody 

 British representative of a small group allied 

 on the one hand to the Ivy and Umbelliferous 

 families, and on the other to the Honeysuckles. This 

 is the Coma'cecc, an Order belonging mainly to the 

 temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, and 

 familiarly represented in our gardens by the so-called 

 Japanese Spotted or "Cuba" "Laurel" (Au'cuba 

 japon'ica). They are mostly woody plants with 

 simple exstipulate leaves in opposite pairs, and clusters 

 of small flowers having the petals valvate in the bud, 

 meeting, that is, without overlapping, and the " in- 

 ferior " ovary forming a fleshy fruit with a bony stone. 

 The genus Corn us is specially characterised by having 

 most of the parts of its flowers in whorls of four and 

 by the stone of the fruit being composed of two one- 

 seeded chambers. 



There can, in fact, hardly be a better lesson 

 in the geometrically regular symmetry of the flower 

 than to examine in June one of the little creamy 

 blossoms of the Dogwood. In the bud it is en- 

 closed by four minute sepals, which soon disappear. 

 Alternating with these are the four narrow-pointed 

 creamy- white petals. They are, as we have said, 

 valvate in the bud, and afterwards bend downwards. 

 j Alternating with these again, and thus each stand- 



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