CHAPTER XXIII 



The Dogwood and Gun 



The Cornel family, which is the vernacular name of the family 

 to which the dogwood and gum belongs — the Comaceae, as it is 

 known scientifically, contains about 15 genera and a great many 

 species or different kinds of shrubs and trees, widely distributed 

 throughout the modem world and mostly unknown to all except 

 the professional botanist. 



THE DOGWOOD 



The dogwoods, known scientifically as Cornus, derived from the 

 Latin cornu, a horn, in allusion to the hardness of the wood, em- 

 brace 40 to 50 existing kinds of shrubs and small, economically 

 unimportant hardwood trees. These are widely distributed 

 throughout the three continents of the Northern Hemisphere, and 

 cross the equator into South America. Here in North America 

 we have 17 or 18 species, of which 4 attain to the stature of trees, 

 and it depends whether you Hve on the Atlantic or Pacific coasts 

 as to what the name dogwood calls to mind. 



The dogwoods are chiefly moisture-loving plants, growing either 

 in naturally moist soils, or in forests where shade and ground 

 litter conserve the soil water. The often bright colored and some- 

 times exceedingly handsome fruits are eagerly eaten by birds and 

 mammals with no injury to their contained seeds wliich are thus 

 widely distributed. The flowers themselves are small, crowded 

 together and inconspicuous, but are surroimded by from four to 

 six large wliitish or pinkish bracts that constitute the "flower" 

 to the average person, and it is these showy bracts to which the 

 beauty of the dogwood blossoms are due. Next spring when the 

 dogwood wliitens the woods and you bring some sprays indoors 

 examine them carefully and you will see the small yellowish true 

 flowers forming the central disk with the pinkish leaves or bracts 



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