2. [Cornus Nuttallii] Aud. Dogwood.
Leaves ovate or slightly obovate, acute and often contracted into a short point at the apex, cuneate at base, faintly crenulate-serrate, and generally clustered toward the end of the branches, when they unfold coated below with pale tomentum and puberulous above, and at maturity thin, bright green and slightly puberulous, with short appressed hairs on the upper surface, and woolly pubescent on the lower surface, 4′—5′ long and 1½′—3′ wide, with a prominent midrib impressed above, and about 5 pairs of slender primary veins connected by remote reticulate veinlets; in the autumn turning bright orange and scarlet before falling; petioles stout, grooved, pubescent, ½′—⅔′ in length, with a large clasping base. Flowers: head of flower-buds appearing during the summer between the upper pair of lateral leaf-buds, surrounded at base but not inclosed by the involucral scales during the winter, hemispheric, ½′ in diameter, usually nodding on a stout hairy peduncle ¾′—1′ long; involucral scales becoming when the flowers open 1½′—3′ long and 1½′—2′ wide, white or white tinged with pink, oblong to obovate or nearly orbicular, and acute, acuminate, or obtuse, entire and thickened at apex, puberulous on the outer surface, gradually narrowed below the middle and conspicuously 8-ribbed, the spreading ribs united by reticulate veinlets; flowers in dense cymose heads from the axils of minute acuminate scarious deciduous bracts; calyx terete, slightly urceolate, puberulous on the outer surface, yellow-green, or light purple, with dark red-purple lobes; petals strap-shaped, rounded at apex, spreading, somewhat puberulous on the outer surface, with thickened slightly inflexed margins, yellow-green; style crowned with a truncate stigma. Fruit ripening in October, in dense spherical heads of 30—40 drupes surrounded at base by a ring of abortive pendulous ovaries, ½′ long, ovoid, much flattened, crowned with the broad persistent calyx, bright red or orange-colored, with thin mealy flesh, and a thick-walled 1 or 2-seeded stone obtuse at the ends and scarcely grooved; seeds oblong, compressed, with a very thin pale papery coat.
A tree, 40°—60°, or exceptionally 100° high, with a trunk 1°—2° in diameter, small spreading branches forming an oblong conic or ultimately round-topped head, and slender light green branchlets coated while young with pale hairs, becoming glabrous or puberulous, dark reddish purple or sometimes green during their first winter and conspicuously marked by the elevated lunate leaf-scars, ultimately becoming light brown or brown tinged with red. Winter-buds formed in July; the terminal acute, ⅓′ long, covered by 2 narrow-ovate acute long-pointed puberulous light green opposite scales, accompanied by 2 pairs of lateral buds, each covered by a single scale, those of the lower pair shedding their scales in the autumn and remaining undeveloped, those of the upper pair clothed with pale hairs, especially toward the apex, their scales thickening, turning dark purple, lengthening in the spring with the inclosed shoot, finally becoming scarious and developing into small leaves, and in falling marking the base of the branchlets with ring-like scars. Bark of the trunk about ¼′ thick, brown tinged with red, and divided on the surface into small thin appressed scales. Wood heavy, exceedingly hard, strong, close-grained, light brown tinged with red, with lighter colored sapwood of 30—40 layers of annual growth; used in cabinet-making, for mauls and the handles of tools.
Distribution. Usually in moist well-drained soil under the shade of coniferous forests; valley of the lower Fraser River and Vancouver Island, British Columbia, southward through western Washington and Oregon, on the coast ranges of California to the San Bernardino Mountains, and on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada; southward up to altitudes of 4000°—5000°, of its largest size near the shores of Puget Sound and in the Redwood-forests of northern California.
3. [Cornus asperifolia] Michx. Dogwood.
Leaves ovate or oblong, gradually or abruptly contracted at apex into a long slender point, gradually narrowed or rounded and cuneate at base, and slightly thickened on the undulate margins, coated with lustrous silvery tomentum when they unfold, and nearly fully grown when the flowers open from the middle of May in Texas to the middle of July at the north, and then dark green and roughened above by short rigid white hairs, and pale, often glaucous or rough-pubescent below, and at maturity thin, scabrous on the upper surface, pubescent or puberulous on the lower surface, 3′—4′ long and 1½′—2′ wide, with a thin midrib, and 4—6 pairs of slender primary veins parallel with their sides; petioles stout, grooved, pubescent, usually about ½′ in length. Flowers cream color, on slender pedicels, in loose broad or narrow often panicled pubescent cymes, on peduncles frequently 1′ in length; calyx oblong, cup-shaped, obscurely toothed, covered with fine silky white hairs; corolla-lobes narrow-oblong, acute, about ⅛′ long, and reflexed after the flowers open; style thickened at apex into a prominent stigma. Fruit ripening from the end of August until the end of October, in loose spreading red-stemmed clusters, subglobose, white, tipped with the remnants of the style, about ¼′ in diameter, with thin dry, bitter flesh, and a full and rounded stone broader than high, somewhat oblique, slightly grooved on the edge, and 1 or 2-seeded; seeds nearly ¼′ long, with a pale brown coat.
A tree, sometimes nearly 50° high, with a short trunk 8′—10′ in diameter, thin erect wand-like branches forming a narrow irregular rather open head, and slender branchlets marked by numerous small pale lenticels, light green and puberulous when they first appear, pale red, lustrous, and puberulous during their first winter, light reddish brown in their second year, and ultimately light gray-brown or gray; usually shrubby. Winter-buds acute, compressed, pubescent, sessile, or stalked, about ⅛′ long, with 2 pairs of opposite scales, the terminal bud nearly twice as large as the compressed lateral buds. Bark of the trunk about ⅛′ thick, and divided by shallow fissures into narrow interrupted ridges broken into small closely appressed dark red-brown scales. Wood close-grained, hard, pale brown, with thick cream-colored sapwood.
Distribution. Southwestern Ontario (Point Pelee and Pelee Island), southward through Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi to western Florida (Gadsden and Levy Counties) and westward to southeastern South Dakota, southeastern Nebraska, central Kansas, northwestern Oklahoma (near Alva, Woods County) and western Texas (Kerr, Menard and Brown Counties); probably only arborescent on the rich bottom-lands of southern Arkansas and eastern Texas.