THE ALTERNATE-LEAVED DOGWOOD 



THE adjective phrase used in naming this species indicates one of its chief char- 

 acteristics. While the other Dogwoods have opposite leaves, in this form they 

 are generally alternate. This alternation is somewhat irregular, however, there 

 being a tendency to grouping in more or less definite whorls, especially next the flower- 

 clusters, in a way well shown in the accompanying plate. The leaves themselves have 

 the peculiar texture with sunken veins and smooth margins characteristic of many of the 

 Dogwoods. In its best estate this species becomes a small tree twenty-five feet high, but 

 more commonly it is smaller and more or less shrub-like, with flat spreading branches 

 arising in irregular whorls upon the main stem. The attractive clusters of yellowish flowers 

 appear late in spring or early in summer, and are followed in autumn by the good-sized 

 bluish black berries borne at the ends of branching stems of an attractive red color. The 

 berries are eaten by so many kinds of birds that they are likely to gone before winter. 

 The twigs in winter are greenish, sometimes purplish, and the species is frequently called 

 the Green Osier Dogwood. 



This Alternate-leaved Dogwood is one of the most characteristic features of the 

 underwoods in Northern forests. It is widely distributed, occurring from Nova Scotia 

 south to Alabama, and west to Minnesota. It is especially attractive in autumn when the 

 foliage takes on a deep purplish red color, and the fruits and fruit-stems are also colored 

 in contrasting hues. The species is of decided value in ornamental planting, the chief 

 objection to it for this purpose being that it is subject to a disease, probably of bacterial 

 origin, somewhat similar to pear-blight. The young trees are commonly offered by nursery- 

 men, or may be transplanted from the woods. Two horticultural varieties have already 

 been introduced: in one the whorled effect of the horizontal branches is more marked 

 than in the wild plant; in the other, the leaves are marked with white. 



There are several other Dogwoods in our native flora. The Rough-leaved Dog- 

 wood (Cornus asperifolia) is widely distributed through the West, a shrub in the North 

 and a tree in the South. You may know it by its white berries and its leaves rough- 

 ened by stiff hairs. The Pacific Dogwood was named by one ornithologist in honor of 

 another: Cornus Nutallii Audubon will immediately awaken interest in the mind of any 

 one interested in birds and bird books. The large six-bracted blossoms are suggestive of 

 those of the Flowering Dogwood of the east, and it lights up the western forests in much 

 the same way that the latter lights up the eastern woods. 



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