88. CORNUS FLORIDA FLOWERING DoGWOOD, BOXWOOD. 29 



A small tree, usually a large shrub, but occasionally under most favor- 

 able circumstances attaining a hight of 25 ft. (8 m.) with a trunk 12 in. 

 (0. 30 in.) in diameter, with wide-spreading top of upward divergent 

 branches arranged in flat sprays, and with smooth dark green bark, which 

 on the largest trunks is of a darker tint and rough with firmly adherent 

 narrow ridges. It is a handsome tree and of very characteristic habit of 

 growth. 



HABITAT. Southern Canada from New Brunswick to the northern 

 shores of Lake Superior, the Northern States and southward among the 

 Alleghenies to Georgia. 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. Wood heavy, hard, strong, very close- 

 grained, of peculiar strong odor, and a light reddish-brown color, with 

 abundant creamy white sap-wood, and numerous fine medullary rays. 

 Specific Gravity, 0.6^96; Percentage of Ash, 0.41; Relative Approxi- 

 mate Fuel Value, 0.6669; Weight of a Cubic Foot in Pounds, 41. to. 



USES. This tree possesses peculiar value for ornamental purposes in 

 parks, etc., owing to its interesting habit of growth, handsome foliage, 

 abundant lateral clusters of flowers, and later its conspicuous fruit. 

 When leafless, too, it is hardly less interesting. 



MEDICIXAL PROPERTIES are not recorded of this species, though the 

 tonic and astringent properties of the genus mentioned under C. florida 

 could doubtless be found in this. 



88. CORNUS FLORIDA, L. 



FLOWERING DOGWOOD, BOXWOOD. 



Ger., Bluliender Hartriegel ; Fr., Cornuiller fleuri ; Sp., Cornel florido. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. Leaves opposite, ovate to oval, tapering to a short point, 

 acute at base, 3-6 in. long, margins somewhat thickened and obscurely crenulate- 

 toothed, pale beneath, prominently veined, furnished with minute closely appressed 

 white hairs above and below, somewhat depressed along the veins, above which are 

 long, prominent and finally running parallel with the margins; petioles short (f in. 

 or less), involute in vernation. Flowers appear early in the spring as the leaves are 

 commencing to expand, small (about in. in diameter), greenish, in a close cluster 

 surrounded by four large showy whitish or sometimes pink or green tinted and very 

 rarely red petal-like obcordate involucral bracts, each about 1 A in. long; calyx urceolate, 

 puberulent outside, with short blunt lobes; petals strap-shaped and reflexed, puperu- 

 lent outside; stamens and pistil as described for the genus. Fruit a bright red oval 

 or ovoid drupe, about in. in length, with mealy flesh and an ovid smoothish, 

 2-celled (occasionally 1-celled) stone. Only a few drupes mature from each cluster; 

 they sessile upon the orange-colored disk among- the dried remnants of the abortive 

 flowers. 



(The specific name, florida, is the Latin for abounding in flowers and applicable on 

 account of the conspicuous nature of this Dogwood when in blossom.) 



A small spreading tree, rarely attaining the height of 40 ft. (12 m.), 

 and 15 in. (0.40 m.) in diameter of trunk or often only a shrub. The 



