i6 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



AMERICAN FOREST TREES. 



Dogwood. 



Vonius FloritUj — I. inn. 

 Dogwood grows from eastern Massachusetts 

 south to central Florida;- west through the 

 southern states, lower Ontario and southern 

 Mic-higan; down into southwestern Missouri 

 aiul the vicinity of the Bi-azos river in Texas; 

 in Mexico it is found along the Sierra Madre 

 mountains. 



It is called flowering dogwood in 

 Massachusetts, Khode Island, New 

 York, New Jersey, Delaware, Penn- 

 sylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, 

 South Carolina, Mississippi, Louis- 

 iana, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, 

 Kansas, Michigan, Ontario, Ohio 

 and Indiana; dogwood in New Jer- 

 sey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, West 

 Virginia, North Carolina, South 

 Carolina, Alabama, Florida, Loui.s- 

 iana, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana and 

 Michigan ; boxwood in Connecticut, 

 Rhode Island, New York, Missis- 

 sippi, Michigan, Kentucky, Indiana 

 and Ontario ; false box dogwood in 

 Kentucky; New England boxwood 

 in Tennessee; flowering cornel in 

 Rhode Island; cornel in Texas; 

 Cornel-wood in scattering sections 

 throughout the South. 



Common names are not always 

 easy to account for; the name of 

 the genus to which this ti-ee belongs, 

 Cornus, signifies horny, and is ap- 

 plicable to the tough, hard qualities 

 of the wood. Why the name ' ' dog- 

 wood ' ' should have been adopted is 

 more or less of a mystery. One 

 writer offers this explanation : 

 ' ' Dogwood is one of those unfor- 

 tunate popular names fastened with- 

 out reason upon a family of beau- 

 tiful trees and shrubs. In the good 

 old times it was the practice in 

 England to steep the bark of a cer- 

 tain species and wash mangy dogs 

 with the astringent decoction. Per- 

 liaps the dogs were as indignant at 

 tills treatment as we are to be per- 

 sistently reminded of it. ' ' 



The dogwoods include about tiiirty 

 species distributed over the northern 

 hemisphere, and one growing in 

 Peru; they are mostly shrubs, al- 

 though a very few species, notably 

 the Florida, reach the proportions 

 of a tree. All are hardy and decidedly onin- 

 mental because of their attractive blossoms 

 and autumn foliage. The Florida and one 

 other species, which thrives along the Pacific 

 coast and among the redwood forests of 

 California, are about the only varieties which 

 enter into lumber manufacture to any extent. 

 The leaves of Corims Florida are simple, 

 growing opposite each other on petioles, and 

 clustered at the ends of branchlets; in shape 

 they are elliptical with pointed a]iex and 



SIXTY-SECOND PAPER. 



base; three to five inches long, witli distinct 

 white ribs and veins; they are bright green 

 above and glabrous; pubescent ami palm- 

 below. 



The flowers bloom in April or May, and 

 grow ill a rounded cluster; they are green 

 and very tiny, surrounded by a conspicuous 

 involucre of four white, petal-like bracts. 



TYPICAL GROWTH DOGWOoH, AI.AI;a\1A 



iiotclied at the tip and tinged with dclii-atc 

 pink. In the inflorescence of the rose and 

 other familiar flowers, the bracts are not 

 readily seen, the corolla with its larger size 

 and finer coloring, obscuring them. In the 

 dogwood this is reversed — in the center of 

 the handsome cluster of bracts may be found 

 the tiny flower, complete with its minute 

 petals, stigma and stamens. 



'?W bark of dogwood is very dark colored 



and roughly ridged, broken into plates. In 

 winter the tree may be readily distinguished 

 in a large forest of many varieties by the 

 grayish-brown, checkered appearance of the 

 bark, resembling quite strikingly the skin of 

 an alligator. The bark of the roots yields a 

 bitter drug similar to quinine, which was 

 formerly used as a powerful tonic. 



The fruit of this tree is an oval 

 bunch of bright scarlet berries, 

 about half an inch long, few in 

 each cluster; they ripen in October. 

 In general appearance the dog- 

 -^«t wood is rounded, with spreading 



^ branches, flat-topped and bushy. 



It grows from fifteen to forty feet 

 liigh, and attains a diameter of 

 from one to one and a half feet. 

 The tree is often found growing 

 beneath the spreading branches of 

 the larger inhabitants of the forest, 

 and "has a picturesque wayward- 

 ness of habit in the woods; it 

 crouclies in the shadows of all trees 

 and leans out to reach the sunshine 

 that .sifts through the forest cover.'' 

 In olden times when spinning was 

 one of the regular occupations of 

 farmers' households the stem of the 

 young dogwood usually furnished 

 the distaff. 



The wood of dogwood is close- 

 grained ; the heartwood rich brown, 

 changing to green and red, the sap- 

 wood lighter. It is strong, tough, 

 liard and heavy, a cubic foot of sea- 

 soned wood -weighing approximately 

 fifty pounds. It takes a beautiful, 

 satiny polish, and is valued in wood- 

 car\-ing and for engraving blocks, 

 aside from being very desirable for 

 turnery, bearings of machinery, 

 small hubs, tool handles, etc. 



The wood is always in demand 

 with the export trade, particularly 

 English buyers, who use it along 

 with persimmon for golf-heads and 

 shuttle-blocks. The flowering dog- 

 wood does not grow wild in any 

 country but the United States, and 

 it is being exterminated in many 

 ]ilaces. One writer says: "They 

 are beiug cut fur tlie jialtry bit of 

 lumber yielded liy tlicir spindling 

 trunks. It ought to be a. capital 

 crime to cut a single one. Thej- 

 arc destroyed for even less cause. A hermit 

 lived alone in a strip of woods along a little 

 Michigan lake. He loved trees and plants 

 and kept this area a veritable Nature's gar- 

 den and willed it to the nearby city on his 

 death. The park commissioners, when they 

 had spread their thanks upon the records, 

 took immediate steps 'to put the grounds in 

 shape. ' Two strong laborers were sent in 

 to clear it up. They cut out all the dog- 



