Minnesota Plant Life. 



34i 



wood, the petal-like leaves are pinkish, but more commonly 

 they are white. The bush occurs rather sparingly along the 

 Mississippi river, from Stearns county to the Iowa line. Its 

 fruits are very similar to those of the dwarf cornel but are a 

 little more elongated. They have the same scarlet color ami 

 cherry-like structure. In the rest of the Minnesota dogwoods, 

 including the shrubs known as red osiers and kinnikinics, the 

 flowers are larger and looser, cymose or paniculate, and not pro- 

 vided with the large, petal-like bracts beneath. The shrubs are 

 distinguished from each other by their foliage, the shape of their 

 flower clusters, the color of their twigs and the stones of their 

 fruits. The round-leafed dog- 

 wood, very abundant through- 

 out the state, is a bush from 

 three to ten feet in height, 

 much branched and furnished 

 with broadly ovate, entire-mar- 

 gined leaves. The fruit is of a 

 light blue color and has an al- 

 most globular stone. Closely 

 related to the round-leafed 

 dogwood is the silky cornel or 

 kinnikinic, distinguished by its 

 silky-haired twigs, quite differ- 

 ent from the green, smooth 

 twigs of the round-leafed dog- 

 wood. The fruit is of the same 

 light blue color, but the leaves 

 are somewhat slender, approaching in their shape ordinary plum 

 leaves. The rough-leafed dogwood grows a little larger than 

 either of its relatives which have been mentioned and may be 

 recognized by the reddish-brown, hairy twigs, the rough, hairy 

 upper surfaces of the leaves and the spherical, white fruits, in 

 which the stone is but slightly furrowed and not much flattened. 

 Bailey's dogwood is very similar in appearance, but has rather 

 narrower lance-shaped leaves and white fruits, in which the 

 stone is flattened and furrowed along the edge. The red osier 

 or kinnikinic is one of the most frequent varieties through the 

 northern and central portions of the state. It is a shrub from 

 three to fifteen feet in height, with bright red or purple. >mooth 



FIG. 167. Dwarf cornel. After Britton and 

 Brown. 



