MOSCHATEL 193 



Tree, Prick Timber, Prick Tree, Prick Wood, Skewer Wood, Skiver 

 Wood, Widbin. Prick Timber, Prickwood, Skewer Wood, are names 

 given because it is used for skewers. The name Bloody Twig is in 

 allusion to the colour of its twigs. Of the name Dogwood, Prior says 

 " not so named from the animal, but from skewers being made of it ". 



In E. Russia the sap absorbed in a handkerchief fulfils every wish. 

 Homer says it was given to swine. The wood was used for spear- 

 shafts and bows. The wood is hard and tough. Cogwheels, skewers, 

 and ramrods were once made of it. The charcoal from it is the best 

 for gunpowder. The fruit contains oil, used abroad for soap. Growing 

 in the shade and drip of trees, it is a valuable shrub for plantations. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



135. Cornus sanguined, L.- Tree or shrub, with red bark, branches 

 straight, leaves ovate, flowers white, in terminal cyme, fruit a globular 

 black drupe. 



Moschatel (Adoxa Moschatellina, L.) 



Quite a modern flower, so far as is known, Moschatel is found in 

 the North Temperate Zone in Europe, N. Asia, Himalayas, and in 

 east and west North America. In Great Britain it is found in the 

 Peninsula, Channel, Thames, and Anglia provinces except in Hunts, 

 and the Severn province. It is found in Glamorgan, Brecon, Car- 

 marthen, Pembroke, Montgomery, Carnarvon, Denbigh, Flint, and 

 Anglesea in Wales. It is absent from S. Lines in the Trent province, 

 occurring in the Mersey, H umber, Tyne, and Lake provinces except 

 in the Isle of Man. In Scotland it occurs in the Lowlands in the 

 E. Lowlands generally, in Peebles, Selkirk, Linlithgow, in the E. 

 Highlands except in Fife, N. Perth; W. Highlands except Mid and 

 N. Ebudes; and in E. and W. Ross and W. Sutherland. It ascends 

 to 3300 ft. in the Highlands. 



Moschatel is a clay-loving plant, loving the shade of a clay bank 

 overhung by the bough of a hedgerow bush, or the shelter of a wood- 

 land slope where it is protected from the cold blasts of the east wind. 

 Whilst it is a wayside plant its habitat is not so often found there as in 

 fields and woodland districts. 



The root is tuberous, consisting of white shiny soboles on subter- 

 ranean stems. The radical leaves are in threes, with 3 lobes, long- 

 stalked. The stem is stalked, erect, with a single flower-stalk which 

 bears the flowers. 



The flowers are terminal, five in a head, the terminal one having 

 4 petals and 8 stamens, the lateral ones 5 petals and 10 stamens. The 



