382 27^6 New York State College of Forestry 



ovary surmouiited by a like number of styles and capitate stigmas. Fruit 

 a 2-5-seeded, laterally compressed or angled, baccate drupe, tipped with the 

 remains of the styles and calyx-lobes; nutlets orbicular to ovate-oblong, 

 compressed, 1-seeded; seeds albuminous. 



DOGWOOD FAMILY. CORNACEAE 



Trees, shrubs, or herb-like shrubs, with watery juice, terete 

 branchlets, alternate or opposite deciduous leaves, and perfect or 

 polygamo-dioecious flowers. The family includes about sixteen 

 genera and some ninety species, chiefly natives of the north 

 temperate zones. Two genera have arborescent species in North 

 America. 



Leaves alternate or opposite, deciduous, simple, estipulate. Flowers regular, 

 borne solitary, in heads or cymes; calyx-tube adherent to the ovary, its limb 

 4-5-toothed or wanting; petals 4-5 or sometimes wanting; stamens 4r-5 or 

 more numerous with subulate or flat filaments, inserted with the petals on 

 the margin of the epigynous disk; pistil consisting of an inferior, 1-2 celled, 

 1-2 ovuled ovary surmounted by a simple style and stigma. Fy-uit a 1-2 

 seeded, 1-pitted drupe; seeds oblong, albuminous. 



KEY TO THE GENERA page 



1. Leaves mostly opposite; flowers perfect. 4-merous Cornus 382 



1. Leaves alternate; flowers polygamo-dioecious, 5-merous Nyssa 383 



THE DOGWOODS OR CORNELS. Genus CORNUS (Tourn.) L. 

 Trees, shrubs, or shrub-like herbs, with astringent bark, opposite 

 or rarely alternate leaves, small perfect flowers and drupaceous 

 fruit. The genus comprises some forty species, confined to the 

 temperate regions of the northern hemisphere aside from a single 

 species in Peru. Some seventeen species occur in North America, 

 four of which become arborescent. 



Leaves opposite or rarely alternate, simple, deciduous. Flowers perfect, 

 small, white, greenish white or yellow, 4-merous, borne in cymes or heads, 

 the latter subtended by sho^\'y white bracts in some species; calyx adherent to 

 the ovary, the limb minutely 4-toothed; petals 4, valvate in the bud; stamens 

 4, alternate with the petals and inserted with them on the margin of the 

 disk, the filaments slender and exserted ; jiistil consisting of an inferior 

 2-ceIled, 2-ovuled ovary surmounted by a columnar style and capitate or 

 truncate stigma. Fruit an oblong or ovoid drupe, w^th thin flesh and bony 

 (ir crustaceous 2-seeded stone. 



KEY TO THE SPECIES page 



1. Leaves opposite; flowers greenish, capitate, the heads surrounded by 4 large, 



white, involucral bracts; fruit red Cornus florida 315 



1. Leaves alternate; flowers creamy white, in naked cymes; fruit dark blue 



Cornus alternifolia 317 



