Cornaceæ. Dogwood Family
Cornus Florida, L.
Flowering Dogwood. Boxwood
Habitat and Range.—Woodlands, rocky hillsides, moist, gravelly ridges.
Provinces of Quebec and Ontario.
Maine,—Fayette Ridge, Kennebec county; New Hampshire,—along the Atlantic coast and very near the Connecticut river, rarely farther north than its junction with the West river; Vermont,—southern and southwestern sections, rare; Massachusetts,—occasional throughout the state, common in the Connecticut river valley, frequent eastward; Rhode Island and Connecticut,—common.
South to Florida; west to Minnesota and Texas.
Habit.—A small tree, 15-30 feet high, with a trunk diameter of 6-10 inches. The spreading branches form an open, roundish head, the young twigs curving upwards at their extremities. In spring, when decked with its abundant, showy white blossoms, it is the fairest of the minor trees of the forest; in autumn, scarcely less beautiful in the rich reds of its foliage and fruit.
Bark.—Bark of trunk in old trees blackish, broken-ridged, rough, often separating into small, firm, 4-angled or roundish plates; branches grayish, streaked with white lines; season’s twigs purplish-green, downy; taste bitter.
Winter Buds and Leaves.—Terminal leaf-buds narrowly conical, acute; flower-buds spherical or vertically flattened, grayish. Leaves simple, opposite, 3-5 inches long, two-thirds as wide, dark green above, whitish beneath, turning to reds, purples, and yellows in the autumn, ovate to oval, nearly smooth, with minute appressed pubescence on both surfaces; apex pointed; base acutish; veins distinctly indented above, ribs curving upward and parallel; leafstalk short-grooved.
Inflorescence.—May to June. Appearing with the unfolding leaves in close clusters at the ends of the branches, each cluster subtended by a very conspicuous 4-leafed involucre (often mistaken for the corolla and constituting all the beauty of the blossom), the leaves of which are white or pinkish, 1½ inches long, obovate, curiously notched at the rounded end. The real flowers are insignificant, suggesting the tubular disk flowers of the Compositæ; calyx-tube coherent with the ovary, surmounting it by 4 small teeth; petals greenish-yellow, oblong, reflexed; stamens 4; pistil with capitate style.
Fruit.—Ovoid, scarlet drupes, about ½ inch long, united in clusters, persistent till late autumn or till eaten by the birds.
Horticultural Value.—Hardy in southern and southern-central New England, but liable farther north to be killed outright or as far down as the surface of the snow; not only one of the most attractive small trees on account of its flowers, habit, and foliage, but one of the most useful for shady places or under tall trees. The species, a red-flowering and also a weeping variety are obtainable in leading nurseries. Collected plants can be made to succeed. It is a plant of rather slow growth.
1. Leaf-buds.
2. Flower-buds.
3. Flowering branch.
4. Flower.
5. Fruiting branch.