CORNUS 387 



less elongated ; leaf downy beneath ; fruit bluish. Introduced in 1907. 

 (Sargent's Trees and Shrubs* t. 40.) 



C. STRICTA, Lamarck (C. fcemina. Miller), is closely allied to C. candidissima, 

 and has similar foliage. It differs in having purplish or reddish brown twigs, 

 and pale blue fruits. Native of eastern United States from Virginia south- 

 wards ; sometimes 16 ft. high. 



C. CAPITATA, Wallick. BENTHAM'S CORNEL. 



(Benthamia fragifera, Lindley, Bot. Mag., t. 4641.) 



A deciduous or partially evergreen tree, 30 to 40 or more ft. high, of bushy 

 habit, and, if allowed to develop without interference by other trees, wider 

 than it is high ; young shoots covered with fine, flattened, grey down. Leaves 

 leathery, opposite, oval-lanceolate, tapered at both ends ; 2 to 5 ins. long, 

 | to i| ins. wide ; dull grey-green, covered densely on both surfaces with 

 minute flattened hairs ; stalk \ to in. long. Flowers minute, inconspicuous, 

 crowded in a hemispherical mass \ in. across. The beauty of the inflorescence 

 is in the four or six sulphur-yellow bracts that subtend the true flowers ; these 

 are obovate, i^ to 2 ins. long, f to i^ ins. wide. Fruit a fleshy, strawberry- 

 shaped, agglomerated crimson mass, I to \\ ins. across, in which many seeds 

 are imbedded. 



Introduced from the Himalaya in 1825, and a native also of China. It 

 is hopeless to attempt to grow this cornel unprotected near London, although 

 it has lived many years against a wall at Kew, but rarely or never flowers 

 there. One has to go to the Cornish gardens, or those of S.W. Ireland 

 to see this tree in its full splendour. The finest tree I have seen is at Fota, 

 probably about 40 ft. high, and 70 ft. in diameter ; but there are probably 

 others in Cornwall quite as fine. When covered with the pale yellow " flowers," 

 they provide one of the richest ornaments even those favoured gardens can 

 display. In fruit, too, they are objects of great beauty, but often damaged by 

 birds. The flowers are at their best in June and July, and the fruits in October 

 and November. 



C. CONTROVERSA, Hemsley. 



(C. brachypoda of English gardens not of C. A. Meyer.} 



A decidous tree, 30 to 50 ft. high, with horizontal branches produced in 

 tiers ; young shoots smooth or soon becoming so, and soon dark coloured. 

 Leaves alternate, ovate or oval, rounded or somewhat wedge-shaped at the 

 base, narrowed abruptly to a slender point ; smooth and dark glossy green 

 above; glaucous beneath, and at first furnished with flattened hairs attached by 

 their centres ; veins in usually six to eight, sometimes nine pairs ; blades 

 3 to 6 ins. long, 2 to 3 ins. wide ; stalk i to 2 ins. long. Flowers white, 

 about \ in. diameter, produced in June and July numerously in flattish 

 cymes 3 to 7 ins. across. Fruit blue-black, globose, J in. diameter. 



Native of Japan, whence the cultivated plants originated, also of China and 

 the Himalaya. This small tree, so distinct from all other cornels except the 

 North American C. alternifolia in its alternate leaves, is of very elegant habit. 

 It sends its slender branches out horizontally, and they are produced in 

 a group at the end of each season's growth. When of sufficient age, it 

 flowers freely, as an old specimen about 30 ft. high in the Coombe Wood 

 nursery shows. 



Var. VARIEGATA (C. brachypoda variegata of gardens) is a form with 

 long, narrow, lanceolate leaves, rarely more than i| ins. wide, often unequal- 

 sided and more or less deformed, but strikingly variegated with an irregular, 

 yellowish white border, and possessing the elegant pose of the type. 



