[Illustration: FLOWERING DOGWOOD]
Leaves usually opposite; sepals usually 4, calyx tube joined to the
ovary; petals usually 4, or absent; stamens 4, alternate with the
petals; ovary inferior; fruit a drupe.
Flowering Dogwood (_Cornus florida_) grows from Massachusetts to
Ontario, Texas, and Mexico, but few people realize that it grows very
luxuriantly and is widespread in the woods of East Texas. The beauty of
the dogwood is not in the flowers, as one might expect, but in the four
broad white floral leaves (bracts) which surround the flower-cluster.
These bracts are a creamy white but are often tinged with pink. The
minute greenish-white flowers have four petals and bloom in March before
the leaves appear. The oblong scarlet fruits, about half an inch long,
ripen in the fall.
It is said that dogwood gets its name from the fact that the bark of an
English dogwood was used to treat mangy dogs. Another source for the
name is given in a recent magazine which shows a photograph of a section
of wood from a dogwood tree. By means of the growth rings of the tree,
the section depicted the head of a swimming dog. Among the useful
substances obtained from the tree are quinine from all parts, scarlet
dye from the bark, and wood for tools. Enough quinine is obtained by
chewing the twigs to ward off malarial fever.
[Illustration: SMALL-FLOWERED DOGWOOD]
Rough-Leaved Cornel. Small-Flowered Dogwood (_Cornus asperifolia_) is
hardly recognized as a dogwood because it does not have showy floral
bracts. The rough leaves become very lovely in the fall as the veins
take on a reddish-purple color. It is a very common shrub in thickets
along streams or in moist ground from Texas to Southern Ontario. The
flowers bloom in Texas from April to June, and the white fruits mature
in the fall. The fruits are about ¼ inch in diameter and contain 2 seeds
with a stony coat which is covered by a thin pulp.
The dogwood family includes several other trees and shrubs which are
common in Texas. Black gum (_Nyssa sylvatica_) has 2-3 blue oval fruits
about half an inch long in a cluster. It is one of the first trees in
East Texas whose foliage takes on an autumnal coloring. Lindheimer’s
garrya (_Garrya lindheimeri_), an evergreen shrub with thick leathery
leaves, is very abundant in the hills of Central and West Texas. It
bears dense clusters of small blue berries less than ¼ inch in diameter.