It is seldom that the species of any genus of plants differ in the opposite or alternate characters of the leaves and branches. But the purple-fruited Cornel is called alternate-leaved, to distinguish it from the other species. It is not, however, a genuine exception; for the leaves come out around the stem, not in a true alternate arrangement, but in imperfect whorls, and mixed with some that are opposite. The flowers are small, in irregular cymes; the fruit of a dark purple. It is found in swamps and low moist woods, and, with the other species, constitutes a fair proportion of the underwood of our deciduous forests.
The white-fruited Cornel is very frequent by waysides, rising a little above our loose stone-walls. This seems to be the most abundant species outside of the woods in the vicinity of Boston. Its flowers are white and rather inconspicuous, and are succeeded by clusters of pearly white berries. The blue-fruited Cornel, or red osier, is remarkable for its colored branches and large round leaves with an acuminate termination. The blue fruit of this species is very ornamental, and it is distinguished after the fall of the leaf by its bright red stems and branches. The Cornel is hardly less important than the viburnum in adding variety to our wood-scenery at all seasons.
By far the most interesting and beautiful species of the genus is the Florida Cornel, so called from its abundance in the forests on the American side of the Gulf of Mexico. In all that region, the woods in May are white with its large conspicuous flowers, sometimes occupying tracts of many acres exclusively, covering them with an almost unvaried whiteness, before the leaves of the trees are put forth. The flowers are borne in semiglobular heads, enclosed in a large spreading involucre, which is often mistaken for the corolla, the florets within resembling superficially a collection of stamens. About the first of June, in New England, these trees are very attractive, seeming like masses of pure white inflorescence. In the North it does not constitute the principal growth of any wood; but it is admired by all when they see it scattered among the greenery, and admired the more from its infrequency in this region.
The small branches are greenish, striated with longitudinal and irregular white lines. The leaves are two or three inches long, oval, and of middle size. The flowers appear on the ends of the branches, included in an involucre consisting of four divisions. The head of florets thus enclosed ripens into a bunch of bright scarlet berries, surrounded by a dark purple calyx. In the autumn all the species turn to different shades of red and purple.
The little dwarf Cornel, though an herbaceous plant, deserves mention in connection with the other species. It may be compared to a flower cut off with a single whorl of leaves, and then inserted into the ground. You might suppose that the large tree Cornel was buried, and that these little whorls, with their flowers, were peeping up through the ground from the branches beneath. At some distance they are easily mistaken for wood-anemones, though on examination no resemblance is apparent. The flowers are very showy and attractive in the wild pastures and woods, and produce in the autumn a round and compact cluster of scarlet berries, which are said to be pleasant and wholesome, but rather insipid. In winter they are the food of many species of birds.
THE SUMACH.
THE SUMACH.
The Sumachs are not the objects of any special admiration. They are not the favorites of nature or of art, neither adding dignity to the landscape nor expression to the canvas of the painter. But they blend their fine pinnate foliage with the wayside shrubbery, varying its appearance by their original habit of growth; and they are seen springing in little groups upon sandy plains, where they relieve the eye that might otherwise be wearied with the monotonous waste of sorrel and tufted andropogons. They display many of the characters of the tropical plants in their long compound leaves, and in the exuberant growth of their recent branches. They are distinguished by their milky, resinous, and in some cases poisonous sap.