DOGWOOD FAMILY. Cornaceae. 
DOGWOOD FAMILY. Cornaceae. 
Not a very large family, most abundant in the northern 
hemisphere, mostly trees or shrubs. They have simple, 
mostly toothless leaves, without stipules, usually opposite 
or in whorls. The flowers are in round or flat-topped 
clusters and have four or five sepals and petals and four to 
many stamens. The inferior ovary becomes a stone-fruit 
that looks like a berry. Cornus is from the Greek for 
“horn,” in allusion to the toughness of the wood. 
There are many kinds of Cornus, some natives of Mexico 
_and Peru, with small, white, greenish or purple flowers, in 
clusters, which often have an involucre of large, white 
bracts. 
; A handsome shrub or small tree, from 
Pacific Dogwood . ? t APO 
Cérnus Nuitéllii ten to thirty feet high and growing in rich 
White woods, often near streams. The flower 
Spring,summer clusters are composed of numerous, small, 
Oreg., Wash., Cal. oreenish flowers, forming a large, pro- 
truding knob, which is surrounded by large, white, petal- 
like bracts, usually six in number, giving the effect of a 
single handsome flower, measuring from three to six inches 
across. It resembles the Flowering Dogwood of the East, 
but as the flowers have six instead of four “petals,’’ the 
tips of which in Yosemite are neither puckered nor stained 
with pink, they look different to eastern eyes and the 
general appearance, though equally fine, is less picturesque, 
probably because the shrub is rather larger and less strag- 
gling, the flowers bigger and more symmetrical, and the 
leaves brighter green. The effect of the flat masses of 
creamy white bloom among the darker forest trees is 
magnificent, and in Washington and Oregon the leaves turn 
to brilliant red in the autumn. The fruit is a cluster of 
bright red berries. The wood is exceedingly hard and is 
used in cabinet-making. There is a tradition that when 
Dogwood blooms corn should be planted. 
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