§ 1. Flowers greenish, in a head or close cluster, surrounded by a large and showy, 4-leaved, corolla-like, white or rarely pinkish involucre; fruit bright red.
1. C. Canadénsis, L. (Dwarf Cornel. Bunch-berry.) Stems low and simple (5–7´ high) from a slender creeping and subterranean rather woody trunk; leaves scarcely petioled, the lower scale-like, the upper crowded into an apparent whorl in sixes or fours, ovate or oval, pointed; leaves of the involucre ovate; fruit globular.—Damp cold woods, N. J. to Ind. and Minn., and the far north and west. June.
2. C. flórida, L. (Flowering Dogwood.) Tree 12–40° high; leaves ovate, pointed, acutish at the base; leaves of the involucre obcordate (1½´ long); fruit oval.—Dry woods, from S. New Eng. to Ont. and S. Minn., south to Fla. and Tex. May, June. Very showy in flower, scarcely less so in fruit.
§ 2. Flowers white, in open flat spreading cymes; involucre none; fruit spherical; leaves all opposite (except in n. 9).
[*] Pubescence woolly and more or less spreading.
3. C. circinàta, L'Her. (Round-leaved Cornel or Dogwood.) Shrub 6–10° high; branches greenish, warty-dotted; leaves round-oval, abruptly pointed, woolly beneath (2–5´ broad); cymes flat; fruit light blue.—Copses, in rich or sandy soil, or on rocks, N. Scotia to Dak., south to Va. and Mo. June.
4. C. serícea, L. (Silky Cornel. Kinnikinnik.) Shrub 3–10° high; branches purplish; the branchlets, stalks, and lower surface of the narrowly ovate or elliptical pointed leaves silky-downy (often rusty), pale and dull; cymes flat, close; calyx-teeth lanceolate; fruit pale blue.—Wet places, Canada to Dak., south to Fla. and La. June.
5. C. asperifòlia, Michx. Branches brownish; the branchlets, etc., rough-pubescent; leaves oblong or ovate, on short petioles, pointed, rough with a harsh pubescence above, and downy beneath; calyx-teeth minute; fruit white. (C. Drummondii, Mey.)—Dry or sandy soil, N. shore of L. Erie to Minn. and the Gulf. May, June. A rather tall shrub.
[*][*] Pubescence closely appressed, straight and silky, or none.
6. C. stolonífera, Michx. (Red-osier Dogwood.) Branches, especially the osier-like shoots of the season, bright red-purple, smooth; leaves ovate, rounded at base, abruptly short-pointed, roughish with a minute close pubescence on both sides, whitish underneath; cymes small and flat, rather few-flowered, smooth; fruit white or lead-color.—Wet places; common, especially northward. Multiplies freely by prostrate or subterranean suckers, and forms broad clumps, 3–6° high. June.