CORIARIA CORNUS 383 



in sweet water, make an excellent fly-poison. The leaves are rich in tannin, 

 and are used for curing leather and for making ink ; they also yield a black 

 dye. Introduced to England in 1629. 



C. NEPALENSIS, Wallich. 



Naturally a deciduous shrub, with long spreading branches, but too tender 

 to thrive well in the open air at Kew, where it is frequently cut to the ground 

 during winter, and thus prevented from attaining anything like its natural 

 size. Given the protection of glass it will grow 8 ft. high. Leaves ovate 

 or oblong, slightly heart-shaped, 3 or 4 ins. long on the strong primary 

 growths, much smaller on the branchlets, distinctly three-nerved, smooth, 

 entire. Flowers produced on year-old shoots in narrow, cylindrical racemes 

 i^ ins. long, greenish yellow, the petals becoming in the fruiting stage muc|| 

 thickened, pulpy, and black-purple. 



Native of the Himalaya and the Shan Hills, Upper Burma. Its Chinese 

 ally recently introduced by Wilson (C. SINICA, Maximowicz) may prove 

 hardier than the northern Indian one. It is said to grow as much as 12 ft. 

 high in the mountains of Yunnan, and is already very vigorous with us. 



C. TERMINALIS, Hemsley. 



(Bot. Mar. t. 8520 



This species can scarcely be termed a shrub. It forms a woody root-stock 

 which sends up annual branching stems 2 to 4 ft. long, and spreads by under- 

 ground rhizomes. Leaves ovate, i to 3 ins. long, usually five- or seven-nerved, 

 occasionally nine-nerved ; much the larger, broader, and rounder on the main 

 stems. Flowers, male and female ones of which are produced on separate 

 terminal racemes 6 to 9 ins. long, are greenish at first, the petals of the female 

 flowers thickening and becoming fleshy in the fruiting stage, and being then 

 black or of a beautiful translucent yellow. Each fruit with its enveloping petals 

 is nearly \ in. across. 



Native of Sikkim, where it was collected by Sir Joseph Hooker, 1849-53 ; 

 also of China and Thibet; introduced to England in 1897. This beautiful 

 plant, which is distinct from the other cultivated Coriarias in its invariably 

 terminal infloresence (borne on the shoots of the year) and more numerously 

 veined leaves, is hardy at Kew, and fruits there annually. The yellow-fruited 

 form is distinguished as var. XANTHOCARPA, Rehder, and appears to be con- 

 fined to Sikkim. Wilson introduced the form with black fruits from W. 

 Szechuen in 1908. 



CORNUS. 'CORNEL. CORNACE^E. 



Trees or shrubs with usually deciduous, opposite leaves, the only 

 exceptions being C. capitata, more or less evergreen in mild districts ; 

 and C. alternifolia and C. controversa, both of which have alternate 

 leaves. Flowers usually white, sometimes greenish or yellowish, always 

 small, and produced in terminal corymbs or cymes, or clustered densely 

 in heads ; the parts of each flower are in fours. Fruit a drupe containing 

 a two-celled stone. Many of the cornels are characterised by having the 

 hairs of the leaf flattened to the surface and attached to it by their 

 centres. 



