umbels, with involucres of few leaves. Berry small, 1/4 in.,
5-ribbed, crowned with the remains of the calyx. A tree-like plant, 8 to
12 ft. high, or in the Gulf States 30 ft. high, with the stem covered
with numerous prickles. Usually dies to the ground after flowering. Wild
in damp woods, Pennsylvania and south, and cultivated in the North.

[Illustration: A. Chinensis.]

2. =Aralia Chinensis.= Leaves more or less fully twice-pinnate; leaflets
ovate-oblong, oblique at base, acuminate, sharply serrate, hairy.
Flowers and fruit in large, branching, hairy panicles; thorns few,
straight. A small tree, 10 to 15 ft. high; occasionally cultivated; from
China.

[Illustration: A. Maximowiczii.]

3. =Aralia (Acanthopanax) Maximowiczii.= Leaves long-petioled, simple,
thick, palmately cleft, with 7 serrate lobes; old leaves smooth, the
young with woolly bases. Panicles of flowers and fruit terminal; the
berries striated. Tree-trunk usually quite prickly. This species is said
to grow 50 ft. high in Japan. It has been recently introduced, and
proves perfectly hardy in Massachusetts.

ORDER =XXII. CORNACEAE.= (DOGWOOD FAMILY.)

A small order of shrubs and trees (rarely herbs) of temperate regions.

GENUS =45. CORNUS.=

Small trees or shrubs (one species an herb) with simple, entire,
curved-veined, and (except in one species) opposite leaves. The curved
parallel ribs of the leaves in all the species are quite peculiar and
readily recognized. Flowers small, of 4 petals, in some species rendered
very conspicuous by large bracts. Fruit small, usually bright-colored
drupes in clusters; ripe from August to October. There are but 3 species
that grow at all tree-like.

* Leaves opposite. (=A.=)

=A.= Fruit in close head-like clusters, red when ripe 1.

=A.= Fruit in open clusters. (=B.=)

=B.= Branches bright red; fruit white 2.

=B.= Branches brownish; fruit bright red 3.

* Leaves alternate; fruit blue 4.

[Illustration: C. florida.]

1. =Cornus florida=, L. (FLOWERING DOGWOOD.) Leaves ovate, pointed,
acutish at base. Flowers in a head surrounded by 4 white bracts, making
the whole cluster look like a single large flower 3 in. broad. Abundant
in May and June. Fruit a small, bright red drupe with a single 2-seeded
nut. Ripe in August. A large shrub or low tree 15 to 40 ft. high, with
broad, round