CHAPTER V.

PLANTS WITH THE PETALS AND STAMENS GROWING FROM THE CALYX, EXCEPT IN CORNUS.

FAMILY XXII. THE CORNUS FAMILY. CORNA CEE.
DE CANDOLLE.

THIS family contains trees or shrubs and perennial herbs, with opposite, rarely alternate, entire leaves, pinnately veined and without stipules, and with flowers in umbels or cymes. The calyx coheres with the two- or rarely three-celled ovary, and has a small, four-toothed border. The corolla is of four deciduous petals, growing from the top of the calyx-tube and alternate with its teeth. The stamens are four, alternate with the petals. Fruit a two-, rarely three-celled drupe, with solitary seeds, and crowned with the remains of the calyx. The plants of this family are found in the temperate and cooler regions of both continents, particularly in North America and Nepaul. None of the family are hurtful. They are generally bitter and astringent; and the bark and leaves of several, particularly of Cornus flórida and C. sericea, have been used with efficacy in fevers. The berries of some species, as, for example, of C. Canadensis, are edible, but not very pleasant. The wood of the cornels is hard and close-grained, and is used in Europe for cogs, in mill-wheels, and for other small articles formed by the turner; and in this country as a substitute for box-wood.

XXII. THE CORNEL.

CORNUS. Tournefort.

Shrubs or small trees, with entire, deciduous leaves, minutely rough with appressed, bicuspidate hairs, and white or rarely yellow flowers. The trunk is sometimes subterraneous, throwing up annual, herbaceous branches. There are about twenty species, of which eleven are, according to Torrey and Gray, found in America, north of Mexico, two are found in Mexico, three in Nepaul, one in Japan, two are common to Europe and

Asia, and one is found in all the northern parts of both continents. The bark is very bitter and tonic. Hardy plants, some of themhighly ornamental, easily propagated by seed, by suckers, or by layers or cuttings.

SECTION FIRST.-Flowers in cymes, without an involucre. Sp. 1.

THE ALTERNATE-LEAVED CORNEL. C. alternifolia. L.

A beautiful shrub, six to eight feet high, sometimes a graceful small tree of fifteen, twenty, or even twenty-five feet, throwing off, at one or more points, several branches which, slightly ascending, diverge and form nearly horizontal, umbrageous stages or flats of leaves, so closely arranged as to give almost a perfect shade. It is distinguished from the other species by having its leaves and branches alternate. Recent shoots of a shining light yellowish green, with oblong, scattered, lenticellar dots. The older branches of a rich, polished green, striate with gray, the striæ at last occupying almost the whole surface, and only at intervals allowing the then purple bark to shine through. Leaves alternate, on long, round, channelled footstalks, oval or elliptic, acute or wedge-shaped at base, with a long acumination, entire, somewhat revolute at the margin, dark green, shining, deeply channelled above, glaucous or hoary, with silken, bicuspidate hairs beneath.

Flowers in an irregularly branched head or cyme; the partial footstalks not rising from one point, as in others of this genus, but alternate and very unequal; calyx with four very minute. teeth, and, like the pedicels, hairy. Corolla of four oblong, pointed, white, or pale yellow, reflexed segments; stamens four, longer than the corolla, large, tapering, with yellowish white anthers; style short, with a capitate stigma. Fruit blue-black.

It

A beautiful plant, with a great variety of character. grows naturally in moist woods or on the sides of hills; but when cultivated, flourishes in almost every kind of soil, and even in very dry situations. It flowers in May and June, and the fruit ripens in October.

It is found from

It is sometimes five inches in diameter. Canada to Carolina, and westward to Kentucky.

Sp. 2. THE ROUND-LEAVED CORNEL. C. circinata. L'Héritier.

A spreading shrub, usually not erect, from four to six, sometimes eight or ten feet high, with straight, slender, spreading branches. Recent shoots green, profusely blotched with purple, and verrucose near the leaves; older shoots pale yellowish green or purplish, thickly dotted with prominent, wart-like dots, or sometimes smooth. Branches opposite, spreading at a large angle, yellowish green, blotched and clouded with purple.

Leaves opposite, nearly round, with an abrupt acumination, rather rough, with very deeply impressed veins above, glaucous beneath with whitish down, veins very prominent. The lower and terminal leaves on the fertile stems, are very large, four or five inches long and nearly of the same breadth; the upper leaves smaller and less orbicular. Flowers in terminal, open, spreading, rounded cymes, on rather short, downy stalks. Petals lanceolate or egg-shaped, pointed, white; style short, stout, green, persistent, with a capitate stigma. Fruit blue, turning to a whitish color. It flowers in May, and its fruit ripens in October.

Found from Canada to the mountains of Virginia.

Sp. 3. THE RED-STEMMED CORNEL. C. stolonifera. Michaux.

A handsome plant, conspicuous at all seasons of the year, but especially towards the end of winter, for its rich red, almost blood-colored sterns and shoots. The main stem is usually prostrate upon the ground, beneath withered leaves, throwing down roots and sending up slender, erect branches. These sometimes rise to the height of eight or ten feet, but usually five or six. The bark is smooth, of a dark purplish or sanguine red, sparsely scattered with large, brown, wart-like dots. The leaves are large, ovate, rounded at base, suddenly tapering to a short point, roughish on both surfaces, whitish beneath.

The fruit is white or lead-colored. Nuttall says, "The fruit of this species, though bitter and unpalatable, is eaten by the

savages of the Missouri, from whence it (the plant) seems to extend across the continent and appears again in Siberia." Torrey and Gray show that the Siberian plant is another species, C. alba.

It occurs plentifully in swamps in Berkshire; and is found from Newfoundland, through Canada and the Northern States to latitude 42°, and west to Ohio.—Fl. N. A., I, 650.

Sp. 4. THE PANICLED CORNEL. C. paniculata. L'Heritier.

A slender plant, from four to eight feet high, growing by the borders of fields and woods, in dry situations, and along the banks of streams and on hill-sides, and making a beautiful appearance when in flower. It has an upright stem, and slender, erect, opposite branches, covered with a grayish bark. The recent shoots are of a pale yellowish green with a brown tinge, sparsely dotted with brown. The leaves are ovate-lanceolate, tapering at base, and ending in a fine long point, on short footstalks doubly channelled above. On both surfaces, are visible, with a magnifier, numerous close-pressed, minute hairs. The under surface is whitish. The cymes, or heads of flowers are very numerous, on long, slender, pale yellow stems, with irregular branches. The calyx-tube is covered with a white, silky down, and ends in minute, recurved, hairy teeth. The margin of the ovary, which fills the cup, is purple or red. The petals pointed, lanceshaped, white. Stamens erect, white. Style club-shaped. The fruit is pale white, small, depressed, globose, like an apple, the short style standing in the terminal cavity.

Flowers in May and June. Fruit matures in August and September, when the fruit-stalk is of a delicate pale scarlet.

Sp. 5. THE SILKY CORNEL. C. sericea. L.

A showy, erect plant, somewhat spreading, growing along the banks of streams, and in wet meadows and on moist hills, by fences, five to ten feet high. The branches and upper part of the stem are purple, sprinkled, on the older stocks, with rusty gray, and often entirely gray or brown. Recent shoots green, or purplish green, and, with the leaf- and fruit-stalks, usually

invested with a silky down, especially above, but sometimes almost smooth.

The leaves are opposite, two or three inches long, sometimes more, but less than half as broad, ovate-lanceolate, oblong or elliptic, rounded or tapering at base, ending in a rather long point. They are dark green, entire, nearly smooth or with a few hairs above, paler, with ferruginous hairs, particularly on the mid-rib and veins beneath. The footstalk is half an inch long, round, plain and purple above, hairy. The shoots from the root are green and downy, and bear larger and rather smoother leaves. The upper leaves, particularly those next the flower-stalk, are very broad, those below and on the other branches, longer and narrower.

The cymes are terminal, numerous, on round footstalks, an inch or more in length, silky or downy, flat or hollow above, not large. Calyx oblong, downy, with long, lanceolate, acute, greenish segments; petals tapering, bluntly pointed, yellow without, white within. The stamens are as long as the petals or longer, bearing large anthers. The style, which proceeds from a purple ovary, is large and ends in a head.

But little of the fruit is matured. The berries, particularly the abortive ones, retain the four lanceolate segments of the calyx and the capitate style.

The bark of the silky cornel possesses, according to Dr. Barton, the same properties as that of the Flowering Dogwood, and has often been successfully used as a substitute for Peruvian bark.

This plant is very abundant in the neighborhood of Boston and in the middle of the State. It occurs from Canada to Georgia and Louisiana. It flowers in May and June, and ripens its fruit in September.