THE DOGWOOD FAMILY. CORNACE^ 



THIS is a small family, mostly shrubs or trees, and represented 

 with us by a very few species of a single genus. 



I. THE DOGWOODS 

 Genus Cornus 



The dogwoods are flowering trees or shrubs, varying in size 

 from a small tree to the dwarf bunch-berry, which is not more 

 than six inches high. They have opposite or whorled leaves, 

 and flowers in dense flat clusters. The fertile flowers are small 

 and greenish- white, but the cluster is^ surrounded by large, 

 white or pink, petal-like bracts. This makes the flower cluster 

 showy and is the most striking feature of the genus. The fruit 

 is a drupe with a flat stone. 



The wood is hard and used for making small articles and the 

 bitter, astringent bark is used in medicine. Most of the members 

 of the genus make ornamental trees or shrubs. 



i. WESTERN DOGWOOD. Cornus Nuttallii. Audubon. 



The dogwoods are all beautiful and this tree of the Pacific 

 coast region is one of the handsomest of the group. It grows 

 sometimes ninety feet high and two feet in diameter. The 

 bark is about a quarter of an inch thick, reddish-brown, slightly 

 roughened and scaly. The twigs are green and hairy when 

 young and red-brown or purple when mature. The flowers 

 are in dense heads surrounded by from four to six showy white or 

 pink bracts, each about two inches long and an inch or more 



194 



