Blue Cornel 741 



appearing from January to May, are greenish yellow, the staminate in rather dense 

 globose heads, i to 1.5 cm. in diameter, on slender stalks i to 2.5 cm. long; the 

 pistillate flowers have nearly orbicular petals, and are sohtar>' on stout woolly 

 stalks, which in fruit are i to 1.5 cm. long. The fruit, which ripens in summer, 

 remains on the tree until after the leaves fall; it is oblong, 3 to ^ cm. long, smooth, 

 bright red, and tipped with the pointed base of the style; the flesh is thick, juicy, 

 and sour; the stone is oblong, flattened, its thick hard walls have 10 or 12 mem- 

 branous wings. 



The wood is coarse-grained, tough but weak, white or nearly so, its specific 

 gravity about 0.46; like that of its close relatives it is hard to spht. The ripe 

 fruit is made into preserves. 



III. THE CORNELS 



GENUS CORNUS [TOURNEFORT] LINN^US 



ORNUS includes some 25 species of trees or shrubs with opposite or 

 seldom alternate branches, natives principally of temperate regions of 

 the northern hemisphere. One is reported from Peru. They are most 

 abundant in North America, where at least 15 species are known. 

 They are of no special economic value. Some are very ornamental, when in flower 

 or in fruit, and also admired for their brightly colored branches in winter. 



The leaves are rather thick, entire, opposite, or rarely alternate. The flowers 

 are perfect, small, in terminal or axillary clusters, usuafly in forking cymes; the 

 corolla-tube is bell-shaped, 4-toothed; petals 4, valvate, rather long, white; stamens 

 4, the filaments thread-like or awl-shaped; anthers ovate, attached on the back; 

 ovar}' 2-celled or rarely 3-celled, the stigma truncate or capitate. The fruit is a 

 drupe, usually globose, the pulp thin with a hard 2-seeded stone; seeds flattened, 

 the embr}^o in fleshy endosperm. 



The generic name is the Greek for horn, in reference to the compact hard 

 wood of most of the species. The generic type is Cornus Mas Linnaeus, the Cor- 

 nelian cherr}', a shrub or small tree of Europe. Our species are referred by 

 some_ authors to the genus Svida Opiz. 

 Our arborescent species are: 



Leaves alternate; fruit blue-black. i. C. alternijolia. 

 Leaves opposite. 



Leaves smooth; fruit pale blue. 2. C. stricla. 



Leaves rough-hair^'; fruit white. 3. C. aspcrijolia. 



I. BLUE CORXEL Cornus alternifolia Linnaeus 



This small tree, or more often tall shrub, is also known as the Purple dog- 

 wood. Umbrella tree, Pigeonberr}', and Green osier. It grows on the borders of 

 woods or along streams and swamps, from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia to 



