FOREST TREES. 



137 



The flowers appear in spring, before the leaves, making this 

 tree one of the most strikingly beautiful to be found in our 

 forests. If it was not so common, it would be more highly 

 prized and more extensively jDlanted as an ornamental tree than 

 any tree ever introduced from abroad. Wood very hard and 

 close-grained, and on this account often called American box- 

 wood ; valuable for the handles of small mechanical imple- 

 ments. A tree somefcimes forty feet high, with broad, roundish 

 head, and a stem nearly or quite one foot in diameter. Common 

 on high, dry ground, from Canada to Florida, and westward to 

 Texas. A handsome weeping variety of this species which has 

 been named (7. florida pendtda, was found near Warren, Balti- 

 more County, Md., by Dr. W. S. Thompson, who sold it to 

 Thos. Meehan, of the Germantown Nurseries, who, after propa- 

 gating it for a few years, sold the entire stock to a gentleman 

 in Rochester, IST. Y., from whom it passed into the hands of 

 Pratt Brothers, of the same city. This is a beautiful weeping 

 tree, with flowers of the same size and color as the species. 



C. Nuttaili, Audubon. — Nuttall's DcJgwood. — Leaves more or 

 less pubescent obovate, three to five inches long, pointed at 

 both ends ; involucre of from four to six oblong bracts, some- 

 times three inches long, yellowish or pure white, often tinged 

 with red. Flowers numerous in large heads. Fruit a little lar- 

 ger than in the last, of a bright crimson color. This species 

 resembles the eastern dogwood very closely, and may be only 

 a western variety. A small tree in some localities, in others 

 fifty to seventy feet high. Wood same as that of C. florida. On 

 the Pacific Coast, from Monterey, Cal., northward to the Fra- 

 ser River. Four other species are found in the Rocky 

 Mountains and on the Pacific Slope, viz.: C, sessilis, Torr. O. 

 Calif ornica, Meyer. C, pubcscens, Nutt. C. glabrata, Benth., and 

 C, Torreyt, Watson, all shrubs, from five to fifteen feet high. Of 

 the Eastern species of the Comus, there are about a half dozen 

 different species, all low shrubs, except one, and this is a small 

 herbaceous plant. Of European species, none grow large 

 enough to be classed as trees, and only one or two are cultivated 

 for ornament or other uses. The Cornelian Cherry, Comus mas- 

 eida, is a large shrub, bearing yellow fiowers in spring, succeeded 

 by handsome oblong fruit, of a bright red color, edible, and 

 sometimes used as a substitute for olives. 



The Turks value the fruit highly for flavoring sherbet, and 

 it is considered useful in dysentery. There is a variety with 



