FLOWERY DOGWOOD. 35 1 
in their season, " robe the tree in white, like a full-blown apple-tree, and render 
it one of the fairest ornaments of the American forests." The fruits, which are 
of a vivid glossy red, and of an oval shape, are always united, and remain upon 
the trees till the appearance of the first autumnal frosts, when, notwithstanding 
their bitterness, they are devoured throughout the winter, in the southern states, 
by the mocking-bird (Turdus polyglottus,) and the American robbin, or red- 
breasted thrush, (Turdus migratorius,) the latter of which, about this period, 
arrives from the regions of the north. 
Geography and History. The Cornus florida is first met with at the north, on 
the Columbia River, near its confluence with the Pacific, and on the Atlantic 
coast, in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, between the parallels of forty-two 
and forty-three degrees of north latitude. In proceeding southward, it is unin- 
terruptedly found throughout the country east of the banks of the Mississippi, and 
in some situations, is one of the most common trees. It particularly abounds in 
New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, where the soil is moist, grav- 
elly, and somewhat uneven ; but further south, in the Carolinas, Georgia, and 
Florida, it is found only on the borders of swamps, but never in the pine-barrens, 
where the soil is too dry and sandy to sustain its vegetation. In the most fertile 
districts of Ohio, Kentucky, and Western Tennessee, it does not appear in the 
forests, except where the soil is gravelly, and of a middling quality. 
This fine tree was first noticed by Rev. John Bannister, in Ray's " Historia 
Plantarum," published in 16S0; and afterwards by Catesby, in his " Natural 
History of Carolina," &c. It was cultivated in Britain by Mr. Thomas Fair- 
child, in about the year 1731 ; by Miller, in 1739 ; and has since been introduced 
and propagated into most of the European collections. In England, this tree does 
not thrive so well as in its native country, seldom being found, in the neighbour- 
hood of London, higher than seven or eight feet, although there is a fine speci- 
men at Syon Hill, exceeding twenty feet in height, and others at White Knights, 
which flower freely every year. Miller, however, in 1752, says that " the tree is 
common in British gardens under the name of ' Virginian Dogwood,' that it is as 
hardy as any of the other species ; and that, though it produces abundance of 
large leaves, it is not plentiful of flowers ;" nor had he seen any plants of it which 
had produced fruit in England. Catesby, in describing this tree, says, that "the 
blossoms break forth in the beginning of March, being at first not so wide as a 
sixpence, but increasing gradually to the breadth of a man's hand; being not of 
their full bigness till about six weeks after they begin to open." And Mr. Wil- 
liam Bartram, in his " Travels in Georgia and Florida," published in 1791, gives 
the following glowing account of its appearance near the banks of the Alabama : 
"We now entered a remarkable grove of dogwood-trees, (Cornus florida,) 
which continued nine or ten miles unaltered, except here and there by a tower- 
ing Magnolia grandiflora. The land on which they stand is an exact level; the 
surface a shallow, loose, black mould, on a stratum of stiff, yellowish clay. 
These trees were about twelve feet high, spreading horizontally; and their limbs 
meeting, and interlocking with each other, formed one vast, shady, cool grove, so 
dense and humid as to exclude the sunbeams, and prevent the intrusion of almost 
every other vegetable ; affording us a most desirable shelter from the fervid sun- 
beams of noonday. This admirable grove, by way of eminence, has acquired the 
name of the Dog Woods. During a progress of nearly seventy miles through this 
high forest, there were constantly presented to view, on one hand or the other, 
spacious groves of this fine flowering tree, which must, in the spring season, 
when covered with blossoms, exhibit a most pleasing scene; when, at the same 
time, a variety of other sweet shrubs display their beauty, adorned m their gay 
apparel." 
Soil, Situation, Propagation, fyc. The Cornus florida thrives best in a peat 
