1016 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM, PART III.! 
hay ; hoops, props for vines, butchers’ skewers, and toothpicks. The wooden 
forks are made by selecting branches which divide into three near the ex- 
tremity ; and, after cutting the branch to a proper length, which is commonly 
about 5 ft. or 6 ft., the bark is taken off, and the three branches which are to 
form the prongs are bent so as to form a triangle, like the wooden corn forks 
of England. In this state they are put into a hot oven, where they are kept 
till they are hardened, so as to retain the shape given to them. Similar hay 
and straw forks are made of the nettle tree in France, and of the willow in 
various parts of England, by the same procedure. The wood of the cornel, 
like that of all the species of the genus, makes excellent fuel and charcoal ; 
and the young shoots form a good substitute for those of the willow, in making 
baskets and tying up packages of various kinds. In France and Germany, 
brooms are made of the spray; but only in those parts of the country where 
neither the birch nor the Cftisus scoparius is to be found. The fruit, when 
thoroughly ripe, is somewhat sweet, and not disagreeable to eat ; and, on the 
Continent, it is frequently used in confectionery, and for making marmalades, 
robs, and liqueurs. It is mixed with apples and pears for making cider; and, 
gathered in a green state, and treated like green olives, it is preserved in salt 
and water, as a substitute for that pickle. In a ripe state, treated like ripe 
olives, it yields an oil, which may be used for various purposes, but not for 
the table. A conserve, called rob de cornis, was formerly sold in most drug~ 
gists’ shops in Europe ; but it is now rarely to be met with, even in Germany, 
where the tree is most plentiful. As an ornamental tree, the cornel is valua- 
ble, not only on account of its early flowering, and the fine display made 
by its ripe fruit, but because it is a low tree, and one which, after it has 
attained the height of 10ft. or 12 ft., is of slow growth, and of very great 
duration. For these last reasons, it is particularly suitable for small suburban 
gardens, in which it will form a fit associate for small trees of Cratz‘gus, 
Bérberis, Rhamnus, Ludnymus, Hamamelis, &c. 
Poetical Allusions, §c. The cornel tree was dedicated to Apollo; and Pau- 
sanias mentions that there was a festival celebrated in honour of Apollo at 
Lacedzmonia, called Cornus, which was instituted by the Greeks, to appease 
the anger of the god at their cutting down a grove of cornel trees conse- 
crated to him on Mount Ida. The Palatine Hill was also formerly a place exclu- 
sively devoted to Apollo; and, when Romulus had fixed on that spot for his 
infant city, he threw his javelin, made of cornel wood, against the hill, when it 
had no sooner entered the ground than it sent forth leaves and branches, and 
became a tree: an omen of the strength and durability of the Roman empire 
Virgil says that, when Polydore was murdered, the lances and javelins which 
had pierced his body, and which had all been formed of myrtle and cornel 
wood, also sprang up into trees. When /E£neas and his followers landed in 
Thrace, they found this grove ; and neas attempted to pull up one of these 
trees; but, he says, — 
** The rooted fibres rose, and from the wound 
Black bloody drops distill’d upon the ground. 
Mute and appall’d, my hair with terror stood, 
Fear shrank my sinews, and congeal’d my blood. 
A groan, as of a troubled ghost, renew’d 
My fright ; and then these dreadful words ensued :— 
* Spare to pollute thy pious hands with blood, 
The tears distil not from this wounded wood ; 
But every drop this living tree contains 
Is kindred blood, and ran in Trojan veins. 
Oh! fly from this inhospitable shore, 
Warn’d by my fate — for I am Polydore!’” 
It is rather curious that the last two fables, which turn on pieces of dry wood 
suddenly taking root and becoming trees, should be told of plants of such re- 
markably slow growth as the myrtle and the cornel. But perhaps they have 
been chosen partly on this account, to make the wonder seem greater. 
Propagation, Culture, Sc. In British nurseries, plants are generally raised 
from seed ; for which reason, they are very long before they come into flower. 
The seed remains two years in the ground before it comes up, and should 
