Not a very large family, most abundant in the northern hemisphere,
mostly trees or shrubs. They have simple, mostly toothless leaves,
without stipules, usually opposite or in whorls. The flowers are in
round or flat-topped clusters and have four or five sepals and petals
and four to many stamens. The inferior ovary becomes a stone-fruit that
looks like a berry. Cornus is from the Greek for "horn," in allusion to
the toughness of the wood.
There are many kinds of Cornus, some natives of Mexico and Peru, with
small, white, greenish or purple flowers, in clusters, which often have
an involucre of large, white bracts.
[Sidenote: =Pacific Dogwood=
_Córnus Nuttállii_
=White
Spring, summer
Oreg., Wash., Cal.=]
A handsome shrub or small tree, from ten to thirty feet high and
growing in rich woods, often near streams. The flower clusters are
composed of numerous, small, greenish flowers, forming a large,
protruding knob, which is surrounded by large, white, petal-like
bracts, usually six in number, giving the effect of a single handsome
flower, measuring from three to six inches across. It resembles the
Flowering Dogwood of the East, but as the flowers have six instead of
four "petals," the tips of which in Yosemite are neither puckered nor
stained with pink, they look different to eastern eyes and the general
appearance, though equally fine, is less picturesque, probably because
the shrub is rather larger and less straggling, the flowers bigger and
more symmetrical, and the leaves brighter green. The effect of the
flat masses of creamy white bloom among the darker forest trees is
magnificent, and in Washington and Oregon the leaves turn to brilliant
red in the autumn. The fruit is a cluster of bright red berries. The
wood is exceedingly hard and is used in cabinet-making. There is a
tradition that when Dogwood blooms corn should be planted.
[Illustration: Pacific Dogwood--Cornus Nuttallii.]
[Sidenote: =Red-osier Dogwood=
_Córnus stolonífera var. ripària_
=White
Spring, summer, autumn
Utah, Ariz., New Mex., Col.=]
A handsome shrub, five to eight feet high, with smooth, dark red
branches and bright red twigs. The leaves are thin in texture, smooth
and rich-green on the upper side, paler on the under, and the small,
cream-white flowers, with long, yellow stamens, form handsome,
flat-topped clusters, about two inches across, smelling pleasantly of
honey; the berries are dull white. This is common.
[Sidenote: =Bunchberry=
_Córnus Canadénsis_
=White
Summer
West, except Ariz.=]
A charming little plant, about six inches high, growing in moist, cool
woods and common in the East. The slender stem, with one or two pairs
of small leaves, springs from creeping, woody shoots and is crowned
by a circle of larger leaves, six, or rarely four, in number, smooth
and bright green, setting off a pretty white blossom, with a slender
flower-stalk. This looks like a single flower, measuring about an
inch across, but it is really composed of a number of tiny, greenish
flowers, forming a cluster in the center, and surrounded by four white
bracts, which look like large petals. The flowers are succeeded by a
bunch of red berries, insipid in flavor, but vivid scarlet in hue.