_Cornus florida_
_Flowers_--(Apparently) large, white or pinkish, the four conspicuous
parts simulating petals, notched at the top, being really bracts of an
involucre below the true flowers, clustered in the centre, which are
very small, greenish yellow, 4-parted, perfect. _Stem:_ A large shrub or
small tree, wood hard, bark rough. _Leaves:_ Opposite oval,
entire-edged, petioled, paler underneath. _Fruit:_ Clusters of
egg-shaped scarlet berries, tipped with the persistent calyx.
_Preferred Habitat_--Woodlands, rocky thickets, wooded roadsides.
_Flowering Season_--April-June.
_Distribution_--Maine to Florida, west to Ontario and Texas.
Has Nature’s garden a more decorative ornament than the Flowering
Dogwood, whose spreading flattened branches whiten the woodland borders
in May as if an untimely snowstorm had come down upon them, and in
autumn paint the landscape with glorious crimson, scarlet, and gold,
dulled by comparison only with the clusters of vivid red berries among
the foliage? Little wonder that nurserymen sell enormous numbers of
these small trees to be planted on lawns. The horrors of pompous
monuments, urns, busts, shafts, angels, lambs, and long-drawn-out
eulogies in stone in many a cemetery are mercifully concealed in part by
these boughs, laden with blossoms of heavenly purity.
“Let dead names be eternized in dead stone,
But living names by living shafts be known.
Plant thou a tree whose leaves shall sing
Thy deeds and thee each fresh, recurrent spring.”
When the Massachusetts farmers think they hear the first brown thrasher
in April advising them to plant their Indian corn, reassuringly calling,
“Drop it, drop it--cover it up, cover it up--pull it up, pull it up,
pull it up” (Thoreau), they look to the dogwood flowers to confirm the
thrasher’s advice before taking it.
* * * * *
The Low or Dwarf Cornel, or Bunchberry _(C. canadensis)_, whose scaly
stem does its best to attain a height of nine inches, bears a whorl of
from four to six oval, pointed, smooth leaves at the summit. From the
midst of this whorl comes a cluster of minute greenish florets,
encircled by four to six large, showy, white petal-like bracts, quite
like a small edition of the Flowering Dogwood blossom. Tight clusters
of round berries, that are lifted upward on a gradually lengthened
peduncle after the flowers fade (May-July), brighten with vivid touches
of scarlet, shadowy, mossy places in cool, rich woods, where the dwarf
cornels, with the partridge vine, twin flower, gold thread, and fern,
form the most charming of carpets.
Even more abundant is the Silky Cornel, Kinnikinnick, or Swamp Dogwood
(_C. Amomum_) found in low, wet ground, and beside streams, from
Nebraska to the Atlantic Ocean, south to Florida and north to New
Brunswick. Its dull, reddish twigs, oval or oblong leaves, rounded at
the base, but tapering to a point at the apex, and usually silky-downy
with fine, brownish hairs underneath (to prevent the pores from clogging
with vapors arising from its damp habitat); its rather compact, flat
clusters of white flowers from May to July, and its bluish berries are
its distinguishing features. The Indians loved to smoke its bark for its
alleged tonic effect.