[Illustration: FLOWERING DOGWOOD Leaf and flowers, one-half natural size. Twig, two-thirds natural size.] The _leaves_ are opposite, ovate, 3 to 5 inches long, 2 to 3 inches wide, pointed, entire or wavy on the margin, bright green above, pale green or grayish beneath. The _flowers_, which unfold from the conspicuous round, grayish, winter flower buds before the leaves come out, are small greenish-yellow, arranged in dense heads surrounded by large white or rarely pinkish petal-like bracts, which give the appearance of large spreading flowers 2 to 4 inches across. The _fruit_ is a bright scarlet "berry", 1/2 inch long and containing a hard nutlet in which are 1 or 2 seeds. Usually several fruits, or "berries", are contained in one head. They are relished by birds, squirrels and other animals. The _wood_ is hard, heavy, strong, very close-grained, brown to red in color. It is in great demand for cotton-mill machinery, turnery handles and forms. One other tree has quite similar wood--the persimmon. The dogwood, with its masses of early spring flowers, its dark red autumn foliage and its bright red berries, is probably our most ornamental native tree. It should be used much more extensively in roadside and ornamental planting. The alternate-leaved dogwood, _Cornus alternifolia_ L., occasionally reaches tree size with long slender branches arranged in irregular whorls giving the tree a storied effect. The flowers are small, followed by blue-black fruit borne in loose red-stemmed clusters. +SOUR GUM+ _Nyssa sylvatica_ Marsh. THE sour gum, often called black gum, is found in many types of soil and in most conditions of soil moisture in southern Illinois, but it becomes rare in the northern half of the State. In lowlands, it is occasionally found in year-round swamps with cypress, and in the hills on dry slopes with oaks and hickories. [Illustration: SOUR GUM One-half natural size.] The _leaves_ are simple, 2 to 3 inches long, entire, often broader near the apex, shiny, dark green in color. In the fall the leaves turn a most brilliant red. The _bark_ on younger trees is furrowed between flat ridges, and gradually develops into quadrangular blocks that are dense, hard and nearly black. Most of the branches are nearly horizontal. The greenish _flowers_ on long slender stems appear in early spring when the leaves are about one-third grown. They are usually of two kinds, the male in many-flowered heads and the female in two to several-flowered clusters on different trees. The _fruit_ is a dark blue, fleshy berry, 2/3 of an inch long, containing a single hard-shelled seed, and is borne on long stems, 2 to 3 in a cluster. The _wood_ is very tough, cross-grained, not durable in contact with the soil, hard to work, and warps easily. It is used for crate and basket veneers, box shooks, rollers, mallets, rough floors, mine trams, pulpwood and fuel.