XXII. THE DWARF CORNEL. 415 
Section T'utrv.— Plants with herbaceous stems, and flowers in 
an umbel-like cyme, surrounded by a peial-like involucre. 
Sp. 7. Tse Dwarr Cornet. Bouncu Berry. C. Canadénsis. L. 
Figured in Audubon’s Birds, II, Plate 164. 
A handsome, humble plant, growing in low, damp woods and 
in swamps, conspicuous in May and June for its showy, white 
flowers, and in autumn for its round bunches of red berries. 
Stem simple, erect, or ascending, four to six inches high, 
from a creeping root, square, the membranous projection of the 
angles formed by the decurrent base of the leaves. Leaves op- 
posite, in alternate pairs. Near the root they are thin, narrow, 
clasping, membranous. At the surface isa pair of bract-like, 
purplish, pointed scales, with veins of deeper purple, one quar- 
ter to half an inch long. Above is a larger pair, and at the top 
is a pair still larger, in whose axils are two pairs of smaller 
leaves. All these upper ones are nearly sessile, rhomboidal, 
tapering rapidly to a point at each extremity, entire, ribbed or 
veined, somewhat hairy above, shining and of a lighter green 
beneath. Flowers numerous, very small, in a terminal umbel, 
surrounded by four, white, roundish, rhomboidal, or broad-ovate, 
pointed, nearly sessile, expanded bracts, resembling petals. 
Calyx with four, minute teeth. Corolla with four, oblong, 
pointed, revolute segments. Stamens four, diverging, bearing 
white anthers. Style as long as the stamens, purple, surround- 
ed by a dark purple disk. 'The scarlet berries are well known 
to children, being pleasant, but without much taste. They are 
sometimes made into puddings. But their chief value is to the 
birds, as they seem not to be affected by the frost, and remain 
on the stem into the winter. 
