NAT. ORDER. 
Caprifoliaceoe. 
CORNUS FLORIDA. COMMON DOGWOOD 
Class IV. Tetrandria. Order I. Monogynia. 
Gen. Char. Calyx, four-toothed. Petals, four, small and broad 
Stamens, four, alternating with petals. Style, one. Stigma, 
one. Fruit, a drupe, inclosing a bilocular, two-seeded nut. 
Spe. Char. Leaves, opposite, ovate, acuminate; base acute, glau- 
cous beneath. Involucres, corolliforin, nearly obcordate. Drupes, 
ovate and scarlet. 
This tree rises from fifteen to thirty feet, with a rough, blackish 
bark, full of fissures ; the branches are opposite, spreading, and are 
spotted with a reddish bark, where the old leaves have fallen off ; 
the leaves are opposite, petiolate, oval, entire, base acute, end acumi- 
nate, and pale beneath, with strong parallel veins ; the flowers are 
terminal, and appear when the leaves are quite young, with a large 
four-leaved involucre, about three inches broad, and which, is often 
mistaken for the blossom; white, obcordate and veined; the true 
flowers are in the centre, small, crowded, sessile and yellowish ; the 
calyx is campanulate, with four obtuse teeth ; the corolla has four 
obtuse, oblong petals ; the stamens, which are four in number, are 
erect; the anthers oblong ; the style is short and erect ; the stigma 
is obtuse ; the fruit is several, oval, scarlet drupes, with a nut inside, 
having two cells and two seeds. 
" The genus Cornus, or Cornel, must be divided into two sec- 
tions: those species having the flowers capitate, sessile, and with an 
involucre, are the true Dogwoods ( Cynoxylon), and those with cy- 
Vol. iii.— 59. 
