THE CORNELL 
Cornus sanguinea L. 
In the Cornel we have to do with the one woody 
British representative of a small group allied 
on the one hand to the Ivy and Unmbelliferous 
families, and on the other to the Honeysuckles. This 
is the Corna'cee, an Order belonging mainly to the 
temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, and 
familiarly represented in our gardens by the so-called 
Japanese Spotted or “Cuba” “Laurel” (Aw’cuba 
japon'ica). They are mostly woody plants with 
simple exstipulate leaves in opposite pairs, and clusters 
of small flowers having the petals valvate in the bud, 
meeting, that is, without overlapping, and the “in- 
ferior ” ovary forming a fleshy fruit with a bony stone. 
The genus Cornus is specially characterised by having 
most of the parts of its flowers in whorls of four and 
by the stone of the fruit being composed of two one- 
seeded chambers. 
There can, in fact, hardly be a better lesson 
in the geometrically regular symmetry of the flower 
than to examine in June one of the little creamy 
blossoms of the Dogwood. In the bud it is en- 
closed by four minute sepals, which soon disappear. 
Alternating with these are the four narrow-pointed 
creamy-white petals. They are, as we have said, 
valvate in the bud, and afterwards bend downwards. 
Alternating with these again, and thus each stand- 
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