CORNACE^E. 



Nat. syst. ed. 2. p. 49. 



CORNUS. 



Calyx with a very small 4-toothed limb. Petals 4, oblong, ses- 

 sile. Stamens 4. Style 1. Drupe baccate, marked with traces of 

 a calyx. Stone 2-celled, rarely 3-celled. Seeds solitary pendu- 

 lous. Albumen fleshy. Radicle of the embryo shorter than 

 the cotyledons. 



163. C. florida Linn. sp. pi 111. Bot. Mag. t. 526. Mich, 

 arbres forestiers iii. 138. Bigelow med. lot. ii. t. 28. DC. 

 prodr. iv. 273. Moist forests in the United States, especially 

 on the borders of swamps. 



Wood very compact, covered with a rough broken bark. Branches 

 smooth, covered with a reddish bark, marked with rings at the place of 

 the former leaves. Leaves small at the flowering time, opposite, pe- 

 tioled, oval, acute, entire, nearly smooth, paler beneath, and marked, 

 as in others of the genus, with strong parallel veins. Flowers, very 

 small, in heads or sessile umbels, upon peduncles an inch or more in 

 length, surrounded by a large spreading involucre, constituting the 

 chief beauty of the tree when in flower. Involucre composed of 4 

 white, nerved, obovate leaves, having their point turned abruptly down 

 or up, so as to give them an obcordate appearance. Calyx superior, 

 somewhat bell-shaped, ending in 4 obtuse spreading teeth. Petals 4, 

 oblong, obtuse, reflexed. Stamens 4, erect j anthers oblong, with the 

 filaments inserted in their middle. Style erect, shorter than the 

 stamens, with an obtuse stigma. Fruit an oval drupe of a glossy 

 scarlet colour, containing a nucleus with 2 cells and 2 seeds. Bark 

 a powerful bitter, with an astringent and somewhat aromatic taste. It 

 acts as a tonic, astringent and antiseptic, approaching Cinchona in its 

 general effects, and not inferior to it in the cure of intermittents. 

 Bigelow. The young branches stripped of their bark, and rubbed with 

 their ends against the teeth, render them extremely white. From the 

 bark of the roots the Indians extract a good scarlet colour. Barton. 



164. C. sericea L'herit. corn. No. vi. t. 2. DC. prodr. iv. 272. 

 C. caerulea Lam. diet. ii. 116. C. lanuginosa Mich. fl. bor. 

 amer. i. 92. Moist woods in the United States. 



A shrub. Branches spreading; twigs downy. Leaves ovate acu- 

 minate, with a brown silky down underneath. Corymbs depressed, 

 downy. Drupes globose, blue ; stone compressed. Said to be one 

 of the best tonics in North America, nothing having been found in the 

 United States that so effectually answers the purpose of Peruvian Bark 

 in intermittent fevers. Barton. 



81 G 



