744 The Dogwoods 



fruit is subglobose, 6 mm. in diameter, and white; its stone is oblique, about 3 

 mm. broad, little compressed, slightly angled, and faintly furrowed around the 

 edge. 



The wood is hard, close-grained, and brownish. 



The Silky Cornel, Cornus Amomum Miller, a well-known shrub growing along stream- 

 banks and in low woods and meadows from New Brunswick to the Dakotas, south to Florida 

 and Texas, is said lo become arborescent and 6 meters tall in the valleys of the southern 

 Appalachian region. It differs from the above in its purplish twigs, softer, silky foliage and 

 slightly larger, pale blue fruit with a more pointed and less angular stone. 



IV. THE DOGWOODS 



GENUS CYNOXYLON RAFINESQUE 



YNOXYLON is characterized by its conspicuous involucre of petal- 

 hke bracts. There are 2 species, both small trees, natives of North 

 America, whose showy blossoms and neat habit make them valuable 

 for ornament. The wood is hard and is used for tools, and in turnery; 

 the astringent bark has been used medicinally. 



The leaves are opposite, rather thick, prominently veined, and turn brilliant 

 scarlet in autumn. The flowers are perfect, small, greenish or yellow, in dense 

 clusters, which are surrounded by the conspicuous corolla-like involucre; the calyx- 

 tube is somewhat cyhndric, 4-lobed; corolla of 4 yellowish valvate petals; stamens 

 4, exserted, the filaments slender; anthers elHptic, attached at the back; ovary 

 2-celled, sessile; style terminated by the slender depressed stigma; ovules solitary 

 in each cell, pendulous. The fruit is a red drupe, with thin, acrid flesh, and an 

 elongated, 2-seeded stone; seeds oblong; embryo straight in the fleshy endosperm. 

 The generic name is Greek for Dogwood, C. floridum being the type species 



Involucre bracts notched at apex; eastern tree. i. C. floridum. 



Involucre bracts not notched at apex; western tree. 2. C. NuUallii. 



J 



I. DOGWOOD Cynoxylon floridum (Linnaeus) Rafinesque 



Cornus florida Linnaeus 



This small bushy round-headed tree is probably the most showy woody plant 

 of eastern North America when in bloom, and has received many popular names, 

 among those most frequently used being Flowering dogwood, Boxwood, False 

 boxwood, New England boxwood, and Flowering cornel. It occurs in forests, from 

 Massachusetts and Ontario to Minnesota, south to Florida and Texas, and is also 

 reported from Mexico. It attains a maximum height of about 15 meters, with a 

 trunk diameter of 5 dm. 



The bark is 3 to 6 mm. thick, broken up into numerous small scales, dark 

 brownish gray to nearly black in color. The twigs arc round, light green or red- 

 dish, smooth or nearly so, soon changing to light brown or reddish gray, and bear- 



