Shrubby Dogwoods

SHRUBBY DOGWOODS Our American woods are rich in shrubby dogwoods, whose beauty earns them places in our gardens and shrubbery borders. There is the white-berried red-osier dogwood (C. stolonif era), whose many smooth stems gleam like red-hot pokers in the winter sunlight against the background of an evergreen hedge. The little kinnikinick, or silky cornel (C. Anzomunz), adds to its purplish stems the charm of silky leaves, with white flowers and pale-blue berries in broad, loose cymes. Bailey's dogwood (C. Baileyz) looks grey because of the upturning of the silk-lined leaves. The rich red of its twigs in winter and the colours of its autumn foliage are uncommonly fine, even for a dogwood. This

species is not quite constant in its characters outside of Michigan.

The European Dogwood, or Cornel (Cornus mas), is the carnelian cherry of our parks and gardens. Its button-like clusters of tiny yellow blossoms cover the bare branches in earliest spring, preceding even the forsythia and the spice bush. The scarlet fruits, as large as olives, make a brave show against the glossy foliage in late summer. Dogwoods of exceeding beauty come from Japan and from the Himalayas. But the average American turns from all exotic species, no matter what their charms, to his own Cornus florida, and in May votes it the most beautiful of flowering trees.