30 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. 



the damp, wooded roadside of the mountains, and 

 spreads its light-green leaves scarcely five inches 



above the ground. The 

 white flowers appear in 

 June, and the beauti- 

 ful bunches of bright 

 scarlet berries are 

 ripe in the latter 

 part of August. 



C. alternifolia is a shrub 

 at least six feet high, whose 

 leaves are an exception to 

 the rule respecting their man- 

 ner of grovrth ; they arrange 

 themselves alternately about 

 the tips of the branchlets. The flowers, which ap- 

 pear in May or June, are in flat, open clusters ; they 

 are succeeded in late August by blue-black, round, 

 berrylike fruit, which terminates the pretty coral-red, 

 branching stems. 



C. sericea (called kinnikinic) is a shrub three or 

 more feet high, bearing flat, open flower clusters in 

 June. The silky, downy branches are purplish ; the 

 young ones reddish. This species is common in 

 swampy places ; the berry is also dark blue. 



C. stolonifera is low, from three to four or some- 

 times six feet high. It is remarkable for its smooth 



Cornus alternifolia. 



