192 TREES GROWING IN RICH SOIL. 



the tree is coarsely grained and thought, in the east, to be of 

 comparatively little value on account of its porous texture. As 

 it occurs westward, however, it is often found to be of better 

 quality. In cooperage it is used and also to make clap-boards. 



At Thornedale, at Millbrook, N. Y., there is to-day standing 

 a red oak, the girth of which is twenty-two feet and four 

 inches at a distance of about five feet from the ground. It is 

 a venerable tree and remains like a great, green, trembling cloud 

 upon the landscape. " It was here in father's time, and his 

 father knew it for many years," is said of it, and its age is 

 estimated to be somewhat over two hundred years. 



For the reason that the red oak adapts itself readily to vari- 

 ous climatic conditions it has been much planted. In Europe 

 it has thrived better than any other one of the American 

 species, many being there on record that are over a century old. 



u Then here's to the oak, the brave old oak, 

 Who stands in his pride alone ; 

 And still flourished he, a hale green tree, 

 When a hundred years are gone ! " 



H. L. Chorley. 



FLOWERING DOGWOOD. CORNELIAN TREE. 



{Plate CI.) 

 Cdrnus fldrida . 



FAMILY SHAPE HEIGHT RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Dog-wood. Rounded; branches^ \z-qofeet. New England to Minne- April-June. 



spreading. sola and westward. Fruit: October. 



Bark : blackish or dark red-brown ; roughly ridged. Leaves : simple ; oppo- 

 site ; petioled and mostly clustered at the ends of the branches ; elliptical, with 

 pointed or taper-pointed apex and pointed base, often unequal at the sides. 

 Entire ; netted-veined ; with whitish and distinct ribs ; bright green above, 

 glabrous or slightly pubescent ; paler underneath and pubescent. Flowers: 

 green ; tiny; perfect; growing in a rounded, central cluster and surrounded by 

 a showy involucre of four white, obcordate, petal-like bracts, notched at the 

 apex and tinted with pink. Fruit : an oval bunch of bright red, ovoid berries. 



" Where cornels arch their cool boughs 

 o'er beds of wintergreen." 



Bryant. 



There are a few among us that do not know and appreciate the 



