Part 50

=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, 1-1/2 inches long, obovate, curiously notched at the rounded end. The real flowers are insignificant, suggesting the tubular disk flowers of the Compositae; 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 1/2 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.

=Cornus alternifolia, L. f.=

DOGWOOD. GREEN OSIER.

=Habitat and Range.=--Hillsides, open woods and copses, borders of streams and swamps.

Nova Scotia and New Brunswick along the valley of the St. Lawrence river to the western shores of Lake Superior.

Common throughout New England.

South to Georgia and Alabama; west to Minnesota.

=Habit.=--A shrub or small tree, 6-20 feet high, trunk diameter 3-6 inches; head usually widest near the top, flat; branches nearly horizontal with lateral spray, the lively green, dense foliage lying in broad planes.

=Bark.=--Trunk and larger branches greenish, warty, streaked with gray; season's shoots bright yellowish-green or purplish, oblong-dotted.

=Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Buds small, acute. Leaves simple, alternate or sometimes opposite, clustered at the ends of the branchlets, 2-4 inches long, dark green on the upper side, paler beneath, with minute appressed pubescence on both sides, ovate to oval, almost entire; apex long-pointed; base acutish or rounded; veins indented above, ribs curving upward and parallel; petiole long, slender, and grooved.

=Inflorescence.=--June. From shoots of the season, in irregular open cymes; calyx coherent with ovary, surmounting it by 4 minute teeth; corolla white or pale yellow, with the 4 oblong petals at length reflexed: stamens 4, exserted; style short, with capitate stigma.

=Fruit.=--October. Globular, blue or blue black, on slender, reddish stems.

=Horticultural Value.=--Hardy throughout New England, adapting itself to a great variety of situations, but preferring a soil that is constantly moist. Nursery or good collected plants are easily transplanted. A disease, similar in its effect to the pear blight, so often disfigures it that it is not desirable for use in important plantations.

1. Winter buds. 2. Flowering branch. 3. Flower with one petal and two stamens removed, side view. 4. Flower, view from above. 5. Fruiting branch.

=Nyssa sylvatica, Marsh.=

TUPELO. SOUR GUM. PEPPERIDGE.

=Habitat and Range.=--In rich, moist soil, in swamps and on the borders of rivers and ponds.

Ontario.

Maine,--Waterville on the Kennebec, the most northern station yet reported (Dr. Ezekiel Holmes); New Hampshire,--most common in the Merrimac valley, seldom seen north of the White mountains; Vermont,--occasional; Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut,--rather common.

South to Florida; west to Michigan, Missouri, and Texas.

=Habit.=--Tree 20-50 feet high, with a trunk diameter of 1-2 feet, rising in the forest to the height of 60-80 feet; attaining greater dimensions farther south; lower branches horizontal or declining, often touching the ground at their tips, the upper horizontal or slightly rising, angular, repeatedly subdividing; branchlets very numerous, short and stiff, making a flat spray; head extremely variable, unique in picturesqueness of outline; usually broad-spreading, flat-topped or somewhat rounded; often reduced in Nantucket and upon the southern shore of Cape Cod to a shrub or small tree of 10-15 feet in height, forming low, dense, tangled thickets. Foliage very abundant, dark lustrous green, turning early in the fall to a brilliant crimson.

=Bark.=--Trunk of young trees grayish-white, with irregular and shallow striations, in old trees darker, breaking up into somewhat hexagonal or lozenge-shaped scales; branches smooth and brown; season's shoots reddish-green, with a few minute dots.