COENELlAN CHERRY. 227 



frequent allusions made to it in connection with imple- 

 ments of war. Homer, in the Odyssey, Book XIY, says : 



" His cornel spear, ( 



Ulysses waved to rouse the savage war." 



It is also mentioned in a similar connection in Virgil's 

 Georgics. 



Theophrastus and Pliny are supposed to refer to it when 

 speaking of some of the hard kinds of wood growing wild 

 in Italy. But these writers are generally so vague in their 

 descriptions, that it is difficult to determine what particular 

 trees or plants they were endeavoring to describe. 



Nearly every English author, from Tusser, who, in his 

 work written in 1557, called them Cornel Plums, down 

 to the present tune, have mentioned the Cornel. Some 

 eulogize the beauty as well as quality of the fruit, while 

 others refer to it as merely an ornamental plant. The 

 name Mascula or Mas was given it from the fact that 

 plants grown from seed produce only staminate or male 

 flowers for the first ten to fifteen years ; afterwards flowers 

 of both sexes appear, followed by fruit. It appears to 

 have derived the name of Dogwood from a wild species 

 found in Britain, which bears a small fruit, not edible. 

 Parkinson says this wild species was called hounds-tree, 

 (dog-berry tree,) because the fruit was not fit for the dogs ; 

 hence the name Dogwood, which has become the common 

 name of the whole genus. The Cornelian Cherry is not 

 very plentiful in the United States, although nearly every 

 nurseryman keeps the plants for sale. The long time 

 which it requires to bring seedling plants into bearing, has 

 been one reason why we see so few in private gardens. 



In the older nurseries and gardens near our eastern 

 cities, bearing plants are frequently seen, but they are not 

 so common as their merits deserve. 



The plants live to a great age, and there are specimens 

 in Europe, which are known to have been planted more 

 than two hundred years. 



