Flora Medica

CORNACE.E.Nat. syst.ed. 2. p. 49.CORNUS.Calyx with a very small 4-toothed limb. Petals 4, oblong, sessile.Stamens 4. Style 1. Drupe baccate, marked with traces ofa calyx. Stone 2-celled, rarely 3-celled. Seeds solitary pendulous.Albumen fleshy. Radicle of the embryo shorter thanthe cotyledons.163. C. florida Linn. sp. pi 171. Bot. t.Mag. 526. Mich,arbres forestiers iii. 138. Bigelow med. bot. ii. t. 28. DC.prodr. iv. 273. Moist forests in the United States, especiallyon the borders of swamps.Wood very compact, covered with a rough broken bark. Branchessmooth, covered with a reddish bark, marked with rings at the place ofthe former leaves. Leaves small at the flowering time, opposite, petioled,oval, acute, entire, nearly smooth, paler beneath, and marked,as in others of the genus, with strong parallelveins. Flowers, verysmall, in heads or sessile umbels, upon peduncles an inch or more inlength, surrounded by a large spreading involucre, constituting thechief beauty of the tree when in flower. Involucre composed of 4white, nerved, obovate leaves, having their point turned abruptly downor up, so as to give them an obcordate appearance. Calyx superior,somewhat bell-shaped, ending in 4 obtuse spreading teeth. Petals 4,oblong, obtuse, reflexed. Stamens 4, erect ;anthers oblong, with thefilaments inserted in their middle. Style erect, shorter than thestamens, with an obtuse stigma. Fruit an oval drupe of a glossyscarlet colour, containing a nucleus with 2 cells and 2 seeds. Barka powerful bitter, with an astringent and somewhat aromatic taste. Itacts as a tonic, astringent and antiseptic, approaching Cinchona in itsgeneral effects, and not inferior to it in the cure of intermittents.Bigelow. The young branches stripped of their bark, and rubbed withtheir ends against the teeth, render them extremely white. From thebark of the roots the Indians extract a good scarlet colour. Barton.164. C. sericea L'herit. corn. No. vi. t. 2. DC. prodr. iv. 272.C. caerulea Lam. diet. ii. 116. C. lanuginosa Mich. fl.bar.amer. i. 92. Moist woods in the United States.A shrub. Branches spreading; twigs downy. Leaves ovate acuminate,with a brown silky down underneath. Corymbs depressed,downy. Drupes globose, blue ;stone compressed. Said to be oneof the best tonics in North America, nothing having been found in theUnited States that so effectually answers the purpose of Peruvian Barkin intermittent fevers. Barton.81 G