THE COENEL. 



The different species of Cornel abound in all places 

 occupied by the viburnum, to which they bear a super- 

 ficial resemblance, though the two genera are not allied. 

 They are graceful and rather prim-looking shrubs, having 

 a hard and close-grained wood, and containing in their 

 bark a large proportion of the bitter principle of the cin- 

 chona. Their leaves and branches are opposite, which 

 increases their resemblance to the viburnum. They are 

 verj"- abundant in the Northern States ; and it is remark- 

 able that the different species might be distinguished by 

 the colors of their fruit. The Florida Cornel, called the 

 Flowering Dogwood, bears scarlet berries ; there is also a 

 purple-fruited Cornel, a white-fruited and two blue-frmted 

 species, one leaden-colored, and in Canada a species with 

 dark brown berries. 



It is seldom that the species of any genus of plants 

 differ in the opposite or alternate characters of the leaves 

 and branches. But the purple-fruited Cornel is called 

 alternate-leaved, to distinguish it from the other species. 

 It is not, however, a genuine exception; for the leaves 

 come out around the stem, not in a true alternate ar- 

 rangement, but in imperfect whorls, and mixed with some 

 that are opposite. The fiowers are small, in irregular 

 cymes ; the fruit of a dark purple. It is found in swamps 

 and low moist woods, and, with the other species, consti- 

 tutes a fair proportion of the imderwood of our decidu- 

 ous forests. 



The white-fruited Cornel is very frequent by waysides. 



