38 HOUGH'S AMERICAN WOODS. 



185. CORNUS NUTTALLII, AUDUBON. 



WESTERN DOGWOOD. FLOWERING DOGWOOD. 



Ger., Westlicher Hartriegd Fr., CornniH-ier occidental ; Sp., Cor- 



nel occidental. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS : Leaves involute in vernation, ovate to obovate, 3-5 in. 

 long, faintly crenulate-serrate, acute apex and wedge-shaped at base, tomentose 

 at first but finally puberulent above and pubescent beneath, clustered at the ends 

 of the branchlets, with prominent mid-ribs impressed above, and stout petioles 

 -|- in. or so in length and having large clasping base; branchlets light green 

 and pale tomentose at first, but finally darker and marked with elevated lunate 

 leaf-scars. In autumn the leaves assume brilliant orange and scarlet hues before 

 falling. Flowers open in early spring in dense cymose heads which appear 

 the summer before from the axils of the uppermost pair of lateral leaf buds and 

 remain dormant during the winter, while the tree is leafless. They are then 

 hemispherical, about a half inch across, subtended (but not enveloped) by 4 to 6 

 involucral scales and supported by a stout pubescent peduncle an inch or less in 

 length. When the flowers open the involucral scales are very conspicuous 

 becoming by that time l|-3 in. long, oblong to obovate or nearly orbicular in 

 outline, entire, thickened and more or less acute at apex, white or tinted with 

 yellow or pink, puberulous and conspicuously 8-ribbed ; calyx terete, slightly 

 urceolate, puberulous outside and yellow-green, or in one form light purple, with 

 four reddish purple lobes; petals 4, strap-shaped, rounded at apex and yellow- 

 green or yellow below the middle and purplish above ; pistil solitary with 

 columnar style and capitate stigma. Fruit (ripe in Oct.) ovoid bright red or 

 orange drupes about a half inch long crowned with the persistent calyx lobes and 

 mutually compressed into a dense subspherical head, with flesh thin and mealy 

 and stone obtuse at both ends, 2 celled (sometimes 1-celled by obliteration of the 

 other) and with a single compressed seed in each cell. 



(Species named after the naturalist, Thos. Nuttall, who first distinguished it 

 from the eastern C. florida. ) 



A beautiful tree ordinarily not more than 50 or 60 ft. (18 m.) in 

 height, exceptionally 100 ft. (30 m.), or with trunk more than 2 ft. 

 (<>.(;<) m.) in diameter, with rather slender spreading branches form- 

 ing a rounded top. The bark of trunk is very smooth, of a gray- 

 brown color mottled whitish in patches. On very large trees it is of 

 a red-brown color checked on the surface into small thin appressed 

 scales. 



HABITAT. From the valley of -the Frazer River and Vancouver's 

 Island southward along the coast region of Washington and Oregon 

 to the San Bernardino Mountains in California and along the western 

 slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, thriving in the shade of the 

 coniferous forests and attaining its largest size in the Redwood region 

 of northern California and northward. In the somber gloom of these 

 evergreen forests its showy flowers in springtime, or later its brilliant 

 fruit and orange and scarlet autumnal foliage have a very striking 

 and pleasing effect. No tree of the western forests bears more 

 beautiful or conspicuous flowers than the flower clusters of this tree. 



