1018 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART Ill. 
which are very numerous, and which, in 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.” Catesby, who first described 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. The 
fruits, which are of a vivid glossy red, and of an oval shape, are always united : 
they remain upon the trees till the first frosts ; when, notwithstanding their 
bitterness, they are devoured by the red-breasted thrush (T'ardus migratorius 
L.), which, about this period, arrives from the northern regions, and the 
mocking-bird (T. polygléttus, L.), during the whole winter. In England, this 
tree does not thrive nearly so well as in its native country, seldom being found, 
in the neighbourhood of London, higher than 7 ft. or 8 ft., and not often 
flowering; though at White Knights it attains a larger size, and flowers freely 
every year. 
Geography. Yn America, the Cérnus flérida is first found on the Columbia 
river, near its confluence with the sea. In the United States, it appears in 
Massachusetts, between N. lat. 42° and 43°. “ In proceeding southward, it is 
met with uninterruptedly throughout the eastern and western states, and 
the two Floridas, to the banks of the Mississippi. Over this vast extent of 
country it is one of the most common trees; and it abounds particularly in 
New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, wherever the soil is moist, 
gravelly, and somewhat uneven : farther south, in the Carolinas, Georgia, and 
the Floridas, it is found only on the borders of swamps, and never in the pine 
barrens, where the soil is too dry and sandy to sustain its vegetation. In the 
most fertile districts of Kentucky and West Tennessee, it does not appear in 
the forest, except where the soil is gravelly, and of a middling quality. ( Miche.) 
Mr. William Bartram, in his Travels in Georgia and Florida, gives the following 
account of the appearance of this tree near the banks of the Alabama river :— 
“We now entered a remarkable grove of dogwood trees (Cérnus florida), 
which continued nine or ten miles unaltered, except here and there by a 
towering 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 12ft. 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 sunbeams at 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 was 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; as the Halésia, Stewartia, 
ZE’sculus, Pavia, Azalea, &c., entangled with garlands of Técoma crucigera, 
T.. radicans, Gelsémium sempervirens, Wistaria frutéscens, Caprifolium semper- 
virens, &c. ; and, at the same time, the superb Magnolia grandiflora, standing in 
front of the dark groves, towering far above the common level.” (Bartram’s 
Travels, p. 400.) 
History. This fine tree was first discovered in Virginia, by Banister; and 
afterwards, by Catesby, in the forests of Carolina. It was cultivated in Britain 
by Fairchild, before 1731; and by Miller, in 1739; and has since been propa- 
gated, and introduced into our principal collections, As already observed, 
however, it does not thrive in the neighbourhood of London. The only in- 
stances, of which we have heard, of its flowering near the metropolis are, at 
South Lodge, on Enfield Chase, where Collinson informs us he went to see it 
when it flowered for the first time; at Syon Hill; and at Syon House. Miller, 
in 1752, says that the tree is common in English 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 
