384 CORNUS 



Botanically there are two well-marked sections of this genus, viz. : 

 those in which the inflorescence is surrounded at the base by an involucre 

 of usually four bracts, and those in which this involucre is absent. The 

 latter is much the more numerous group; the former consists of the 

 following species : 



1. Bracts not showy. Flowers in small umbels produced on the naked wood in spring. 



C.'Mas, C. officmalis, (X sessilis. 



2. Bracts large and showy. Fruits crowded in a dense head but not united. C. florida, 



C. Nuttallii. 



3. Bracts large and showy. Fruits of each inflorescence amalgamated into one fleshy mass. 



C. capitata, C. Kousa. 



The greater part of the remaining species are American, and are 

 #iostly shrubs of very vigorous growth, but of moderate beauty in flower, 

 sometimes with handsome-barked wood, often with considerable beauty 

 in fruit an attraction which, through climatic causes no doubt, they 

 rarely display in this country. They all like a loamy soil with abundant 

 moisture, and those of osier-like habit, like C. alba, can be increased 

 by cuttings of naked wood put in the open ground like willows, about 

 early November. Others with a stoloniferous habit can be propagated by 

 offsets, and the rest by layers, when seed is not available. The following 

 may be recommended as the best for general cultivation : 



For Flower. C. Mas,\ C. circinata, C. Kousa, C. candidissima. (In mild localities), 



C. capitata, C. floiida, C. Nuttallii. 

 For Colour of Leaf. C. alba Spaethii, C. alba sibirica variegata, C Mas aurea 



elegantissima. 



For Beauty of Stem. C. alba ; C. stolonifera var. flaviramea. 

 For Habit. C. controversa, C. macrophylla, C. circinata, C. Hessei. 



C. ALBA, Linnceus. 



(C. tatarica, Miller.} 

 / 



A deciduous, wjde-spreading shrub, producing a thicket of stems erect to 

 prostrate ; ultimately 10 ft. high. Bark of the young shoots becoming in 

 autumn and winter rich red. Leaves opposite, ovate to oval, rounded or 

 wedge-shaped at the base, with short slender points ; variable in size, but 

 usually from 2 to 4^ ins. long ; dark green above, glaucous beneath, with 

 minute flattened hairs on both sides ; veins in about six pairs ; stalks J-to I in. 

 long. Flowers small, yellowish white, in cymes i^to 2 ins. across. Fruit whitish 

 or tinted with blue, about the size of a pea. 



Introduced from Siberia in 1741, and a native also of China. This is a 

 rampant shrub, apt to smother anything less vigorous than itself growing near. 

 It is therefore best adapted for forming an isolated mass on a lawn, or on the 

 banks of a pond, where its deep red! stems are remarkably effective all through 

 the winter. A number ^of varieties are in cultivation, of which the following 

 form a representative set : 



Var. GOUCHAULTII, Carriere. A variegated form, margined with yellow 

 and stained with rose. It is duller than var. Spaethii, and with more green and 

 rose in the centre. Var. FROEBELI and var. TRICOLOR differ from it but little, 

 and are no better. 



Var. SIBIRICA, Loddiges. Not so rampant a grower as the type, the 

 branches of a paler, brighter, red ; fruit bluish. There is a handsome 

 variegated form of this SIB. VARIEGATA, whose leaves have an irregular 

 margin of creamy white \ it is thus handsome in summer as well as winter. 



