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 C'ytisus ^coparius 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 10 ft. 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 Cratae^gus, 

 Berberis, J?hamnus, ^uonymus, //amamelis, &c. 



Poetical Allusions, S,-c. The cornel tree was dedicated to Apollo ; and Pau- 

 sanias mentions that there was a festival celebrated in honour of Apollo at 

 Lacedaemonia, 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 ^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 appaU'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 I ' " 



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. 



Projmgation, Culture, Sfc. In British nurseries, plants are generally raised 

 from seed ; for which reason, they are ver}' long before they come into flower. 

 The seed remains two years in the ground before it comes up, and should 



