CORNACE^E. (DOGWOOD FAMILY.) 201 



of nearly the same hue both sides; cymes loose, flatfish; anthers and fruit pale blue. 

 — Swamps, Virginia and southward. April, May. — Shrub 8° -15° high. 



8. C. paniculata, L'Her. (Panicled Cornel.) Branches gray, smooth ; 

 leaves ovate-lanceolate, taper-pointed, acute at the base, whitish beneath but not 

 downy; cymes convex, loose, often panicled ; fruit white, depressed-globose. — 

 Thickets and river-banks. June. — Shrub 4° - 8° high, very much branched, 

 bearing a profusion of pure white blossoms. 



* * Leaves mostly alternate, crowded at the ends of the branches. 



9. C. altemif61ia, L. (Alternate-leaved Cornel.) Branches green- 

 ish streaked with white, alternate; leaves ovate or oval, long-pointed, acute at the 

 base, whitish and minutely pubescent underneath ; fruit deep blue on reddish 

 stalks. — Hillsides in copses. May, June. — Shrub or tree 8° -20° high, with 

 flattish top, and very open, broad cymes. 



2. NYSSA, L. Tupelo. Pepperidge. Sour-Gum Tree. 



Flowers dioeciously polygamous, clustered or rarely solitary at the summit 

 of axillary peduncles. Stam. Fl. numerous in a simple or compound dense 

 cluster of fascicles. Calyx small, 5-parted. Petals as in fertile flower or none. 

 Stamens 5 - 12, oftener 10, inserted on the outside of a convex disk : filaments 

 slender : anthers short. Xo pistil. Pist. FL solitary, or 2 - 8, sessile in a bracted 

 cluster, much larger than the staminate flowers. Calyx with a very short re- 

 pand-truncate or minutely 5-toothed limb. Petals very small and fleshy, decidu- 

 ous, or often wanting. Stamens 5 - 10, with perfect or imperfect anthers. Style 

 elongated, revolute, stigmatic down one side. Ovary one-celled. Drupe ovoid 

 or oblong, with a bony and grooved or striate 1-celled and 1 -seeded stone. — 

 Trees with entire or sometimes angulate-toothed leaves, which are alternate, but 

 mostly crowded at the end of the branchlets, and greenish flowers ' appearing 

 with the leaves. (The name of a Xymph : "so called because it [the original 

 species] grows in the water.") 



1. N. mu.ltifl.6ra, Wang. (Tupelo. Pepperidge. Black or Sour 

 Gum. ) Leaves oval or obovate, commonly acuminate, glabrous or villous-pubes- 

 cent when young, at least on the margins and midrib, shining above when old 

 (2' - 5' long) ; fertile flowers 3 - 8, at the summit of a slender peduncle : fruit ovoid, 

 bluish-black (about £' long). (N. sylvatica, Marsh. N. villusa, Willd, &c.) — 

 Rich soil, either moist or nearly dry, Massachusetts to Illinois, and southward. 

 April, May. — A middle-sized tree, with horizontal branches and a light flat 

 spray, like the Beech : the wood firm, close-grained and very unwedgeable, on 

 account of the oblique direction and crossing of the fibre of different layers. 

 Leaves turning bright crimson in autumn. 



2. N". uniflora, Walt. (Large Tupelo.) Leaves oblong or ovate, some- 

 times slightly cordate at the base, long-petioled, entire or angulate-toothed, pale 

 and downy-pubescent beneath, at least when young (4'- 12' long) ; fertile flower 

 solitary on a slender peduncle ; fruit oblong, blue (1' or more in length). (X. den- 

 ticulata, Ait. N. tomentosa, and angulisans, Michx. N. grandidentata, Michx. 



fl) — In water or wet swamps, Virginia, Kentucky, and southward. April. — 

 Wood soft : that of the roots very light and spongy, used for corks. 



