552 KEW EXGLAXD TEEES IN WINTER. 



FLOWERING DOGWOOD 



Boxwood, Dogwood, Flowering Cornel. 



Cornus florida L. 



HABIT — A small tree 15-30 ft. in height, with a trunk diameter of 

 6-10 inches; developing" a low spreading bushy head with slender up- 

 right or spreading branches and divergent sinuously curved branch- 

 lets turning upward near the end and bearing on their upper sides 

 clusters of fruiting twigs terminated by large conspicuous erect 

 flower buds. 



BARK — Dark brown to blackish, ridged and broken into small 4-sided 

 or rounded plate-like scales, resembling alligator leather in appear- 

 ance. 



T^VIGS — Slender, bright red or yellowish-green, smooth or generally 

 appearing more or less mealy from minute closely appressed gray 

 hairs: with bitter taste. LENTICELS — inconspicuous. PITH — gritty, 

 granular. 



LEAP-SCARS — Opposite, on twigs of the season raised on bases of 

 leaf-stalks with deep V-shaped notch between, on older growth 

 practically encircling twig. STIPULE-SCARS — absent. BUNDLE- 

 SCARS — 3. in leaf-scars of the season often conlluent and first seen in 

 section through persistent base of leaf-stalk. 



BUDS — Lateral buds miiiute, covered by persistent bases of leaf- 

 stalks; terminal leaf-buds flattened-conical, red, generally downy at 

 least at apex, covered by a single pair of opposite pointed scales 

 rounded at back and joined below for Ys their length; flowering 

 buds very abundant, terminal, large, spherical to inverted flat turnip- 

 shaped. 4-S mm. broad, covered by two opposite pairs of bud-scales. 

 the first 2-3 pairs of leaves below the flower buds generally reduced to 

 narrow -pointed scales. 



FRUIT — Scarlet, oblong, about 1.5 cm. long, fleshy, 'u^ith a grooved 

 stone, clustered, ripening in October and generally not remaining on the 

 tree during winter. 



COMPARISONS — The Flowering Dogwood differs from Its relative the 



Alternate-leaved Dogwood [Cornus alternifolia L.] by its opposite leaf- 

 scars, from the Busii Maples. — the Striped and the Mountain — which it 

 somewhat resembles in twig characters, by its alligator bark, the 

 presence of but a single pair of scales to terminal leaf-bud, by the 

 persistent bases of leaf-stalks covering the lateral buds and by tbe 

 abundant large flower buds. 



DISTRIBUTION — A\'oodlands, rocky hillsides, moist, gravelly ridges, 

 frequently cultivated as an ornamental tree. Provinces of Quebec and 

 Ontario; south to Florida; west to Minnesota and Texas. 



IN NEW ENGLAND — Maine — Fayette Ridge. Kennebec county; New 

 Hampshire — along the Atlantic coast, - and very near the Connecticut 

 ri\'er, rarely farther north than its junction with tlie V^^'est river; 

 Vermont — southern and southwestern sections, rare; Massachusetts — 

 occasional throughout the state, common in the Connecticut river 

 valley, frequent eastward; Rliode Island — common. 



IN CONNECTICUT — Occasional, local or frequent. 



AVOOD — Pleavy. hard, strong, close-grained, brown sometimes chang- 

 ing to shades of green and red. with lighter colored sapwood of 30-40 

 layers of annual growth; largely used in turnery, for the bearings of 

 machinery, the hubs of small -^-heels, barrel hoops, the l;iandles of 

 tools and occasionally for engraxers' blocks. 



