A small order of shrubs and trees (rarely herbs) of temperate regions.
Genus 45. CÓRNUS.
Small trees or shrubs (one species an herb) with simple, entire, curved-veined, and (except in one species) opposite leaves. The curved parallel ribs of the leaves in all the species are quite peculiar and readily recognized. Flowers small, of 4 petals, in some species rendered very conspicuous by large bracts. Fruit small, usually bright-colored drupes in clusters; ripe from August to October. There are but 3 species that grow at all tree-like.
| * Leaves opposite. (A.) | |||
| A. Fruit in close head-like clusters, red when ripe | 1. | ||
| A. Fruit in open clusters. (B.) | |||
| B. Branches bright red; fruit white | 2. | ||
| B. Branches brownish; fruit bright red | 3. | ||
| * Leaves alternate; fruit blue | 4. | ||
C. flórida.
1. Córnus flórida, L. (Flowering Dogwood.) Leaves ovate, pointed, acutish at base. Flowers in a head surrounded by 4 white bracts, making the whole cluster look like a single large flower 3 in. broad. Abundant in May and June. Fruit a small, bright red drupe with a single 2-seeded nut. Ripe in August. A large shrub or low tree 15 to 40 ft. high, with broad, roundish head. Common on high ground throughout, and one of the finest small trees in cultivation. A variety with the bracts quite red is also cultivated.
C. álba.
2. Córnus álba, L. (Siberian Red-stemmed Cornel.) Leaves broadly ovate, acute, densely pubescent beneath; drupes white; branches recurved, bright red, rendering the plant a conspicuous object in the winter. A shrub rather than a tree, cultivated from Siberia; hardy throughout.