4 The Shrubs of North Carolina 



(C. paniculata, L'Her.) — A branching shrub, 4 to 8 feet high, 

 with gray branches, found in this State only in our mountain 

 counties. The leaves are only 2 to 3 inches long, with a tapering 

 point, smooth, whitish on the underside. The white flowers are 

 in longer and looser clusters than in the two preceding, and the 

 berries white. 



(C. alternifolia, L'Her.) — I have met with this only on the 

 higher mountains. It is the only one of this genus of Cornels — 

 this being the common name of the shrubby Dogwoods — which 

 has the leaves alternating on the branches, instead of being oppo- 

 site to each other in pairs. It is 10 to 15 and 20 feet high, the 

 branches also alternate, greenish, streaked with white. The 

 leaves are about 3 inches long, hoary and slightly hairy beneath, 

 and pointed at the end. The flowers are whitish, in a loose flat 

 topped cluster ; the berries dark blue or bluish black. 



Dwarf Palmetto. (Sabal Adansonii, Guerns.) — This is but 

 3 or 4 feet high, never forming a trunk, and found only in the 

 Lower District. The leaves are employed in the manufacture of 

 palm-leaf hats. 



Yellow Wood. (Symplocos tinctoria, L'Her.) — Also called 

 Siveet Leaf and High Bush Laurel. It does not extend much, if 

 anjr, north of James River. In this State it occurs from the 

 coast to the mountains, but is most multiplied in the Lower 

 District. In poor soils it is only a shrub 2 to 6 feet high ; but in 

 those which are fertile, as on the borders of swamps, it becomes 

 a small tree, 20 to 25 feet high and 6 to 8 inches in diameter. If 

 the trunk be wounded in Spring, it exudes a milky, offensive 

 juice. The leaves, which are 3 to 5 inches long, are sweet to the 

 taste but rather dry, and greedily eaten by cattle and deer in 

 Winter. They afford, by decoction, a beautiful yellow color, 

 which is fixed by a little alum, wherewith cotton, woolen and 

 silk, are dyed. It is not much used, however. The fruit is a 

 small one-seeded berry. The wood is soft and valueless. 



Choke Berry. (Pyrus arbutifolia, Linn.)^ — A mere shrub 2 

 to 3 feet high, introduced here only to complete an account of 

 the genus. The fruit is berrylike, as in the Mountain Ash, but 

 has the same structure as an apple, with seeds of the same ap- 

 pearance and taste. It grows in small clusters, and is rather dry 

 and astringent. We have two varieties of this : — one, with a red 

 or purple fruit, found on the borders of branches and bays in the 

 Middle and Lower Districts; — the other, in the mountains, and 

 having a purplish-black fruit. 



Gray Willow. (Salix tristis, Ait.) — A shrub 1 to 2 feet high, 

 very much branched, of a dull gray aspect on account of the 

 young branches and leaves being covered with an ash-colored 



