FLOWERY DOGWOOD. 35 1 



ill their season, " robe the tree in white, like a full-blown apple-tree, and render 

 it one of the fairest ornaments of the American forests." The fruits, which are 

 of a vivid glossy red, and of an oval shape, are always united, and remain upon 

 the trees till the appearance of the first autumnal frosts, when, notwithstanding 

 their bitterness, they are devoured throughout the winter, in the southern states, 

 by the mocking-bird (Turdus polyglottus,) and the American robbin, or red- 

 breasted thrush, (Turdus migratorius,) the latter of which, about this period, 

 arrives from the regions of the north. 



Geography and History. The Cornus fiorida is first met with at the north, on 

 the Columbia River, near its confluence with the Pacific, and on the Atlantic 

 coast, in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, between the parallels of forty-two 

 and forty-three degrees of north latitude. In proceeding southward, it is unin- 

 terruptedly found throughout the country east of the banks of the Mississippi, and 

 in some situations, is one of the most common trees. It particularly abounds in 

 New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, where the soil is moist, grav- 

 elly, and somewhat uneven ; but further south, in the Carolinas, Georgia, and 

 Florida, it is found only on the borders of swamps, but never in the pine-barrens, 

 where the soil is too dry and sandy to sustain its vegetation. In the most fertile 

 districts of Ohio, Kentucky, and Western Tennessee, it does not appear in the 

 forests, except where the soil is gravelly, and of a middling quality. 



This fine tree was first noticed by Rev. John Bannister, in Ray's " Historia 

 Plantarum," published in 16S0; and afterwards by Catesby, in his " Natural 

 History of Carolina," &c. It was cultivated in Britain by Mr. Thomas Fair- 

 child, in about the year 1731 ; by Miller, in 1739 ; and has since been introduced 

 and propagated into most of the European collections. In England, this tree does 

 not thrive so well as in its native country, seldom being found, in the neighbour- 

 hood of London, higher than seven or eight feet, although there is a fine speci- 

 men at Syon Hill, exceeding twenty feet in height, and others at White Knights, 

 which flower freely every year. Miller, however, in 1752, says that " the tree is 

 common in British gardens under the name of ' Virginian Dogwood,' that it is as 

 hardy as any of the other species; and that, though it produces abundance of 

 large leaves, it is not plentiful of flowers ;" nor had he seen any plants of it which 

 had produced fruit in England. Catesby, in describing this tree, says, that "the 

 blossoms break forth in the beginning of March, being at first not so wide as a 

 sixpence, but increasing gradually to the breadth of a man's hand; being not of 

 their full bigness till about six weeks after they begin to open." And Mr. Wil- 

 liam Bartram, in his " Travels in Georgia and Florida," published in 1791, gives 

 the following glowing accoimt of its appearance near the banks of the Alabama : 

 "We now entered a remarkable grove of dogwood-trees, (Cornus florida,) 

 which continued nine or ten miles unaltered, except here and there by a tower- 

 ing Magnolia grandiflora. The land on which they stand is an exact level; the 

 surface a shallow, loose, black mould, on a stratum of stiff, yellowish clay. 

 These trees were about twelve feet high, spreading horizontally; and their limbs 

 meeting, and interlocking with each other, formed one vast, shady, cool grove, so 

 dense and humid as to exclude the sunbeams, and prevent the intrusion of almost 

 every other vegetable ; affording us a most desirable shelter from the fervid sun- 

 beams of noonday. This admirable grove, by way of eminence, has acquired the 

 name of the Dog Woods. During a progress of nearly seventy miles through this 

 high forest, there were constantly presented to view, on one hand or the other, 

 spacious groves of this fine flowering tree, which must, in the spring season, 

 when covered with blossoms, exhibit a most pleasing scene; when, at the same 

 time, a variety of other sweet shrubs display their beauty, adorned in their gay 

 apparel." 



So'd^ Situation, Projmgation, ^-c. The Cornus florida thrives best in a peat 



