TREES OF AMERICA. 77 



" The next class will be the magnolias ; but 

 before we come to them,- there are three single 

 trees that I must tell you something about : 

 by single trees, I mean trees of whicn there 

 are no varieties, or at least none discovered 

 as yet. The first of these is the dogwood, or, 

 as they call it in Connecticut, boxwood." 



" Oh, I know the dogwood, Uncle Philip ; 

 there is plenty of it in Jersey, and about here 

 too. It is covered in spring with large flat 

 white flowers, as big as a dollar, and the 

 berries are bright red." 



"les, my dears, as you say, it is very 

 comui )n, not only about here, but all over 

 the f'nited States, except quite at the north : 

 whf/ever there are swamps, there you are 

 surr to find dogwood. Now you must know, 

 mv children, that there are in fact eight kinds 

 of iogwood, but there is only one of them 

 irirge enough to be called a tree, and that is 

 ♦he one that you know so well." 



" And after all. Uncle Philip, it is not very 

 «irge." 



" No ; it is never found much over thirty 

 feet high, and the most common size is about 

 sixteen or eighteen feet. There are two 

 things about this tree that are singular ; one 



