The Tupelos and the Dogwoods 



are chiefly shrubs, a few small trees, and all hardy and ornamental, 

 with handsome foliage, flowers and fruits. An attractive char- 

 acter is the vivid autumn foliage. 



From ancient times dogwoods have been planted as orna- 

 mentals about homes, and in parks and pleasure grounds; tonic 

 drugs, dyes and inks have been derived from their bark; and the 

 wood has been used for engravers' blocks, tool handles, and in 

 turnery. The name Cornus (from cornu, a horn) calls attention to 

 the hardness and toughness of the wood, "Dogwood" is one 

 of those unfortunate popular names fastened without reason upon 

 a family of beautiful trees and shrubs. In the good old times it 

 was the practice in England to steep the bark of a certain species 

 and wash mangy dogs with the astringent decoction. Perhaps 

 the dogs were as indignant at this treatment as we are to be 

 persistently reminded of it. 



There are eighteen American species in the genus Cornus; 

 one is the little herbaceous bunchberry, scarcely six inches high, 

 but distinctly a near relative of the tree dogwoods, as anyone can 

 see. 



Flowering DogVN^ood (Cornus florida, Linn.) A small, 

 flat-topped, bushy tree, 15 to 40 feet high. Bark dark grey or 

 brown, broken into squarish plates; branches grey; twigs velvety, 

 purplish green. JVood heavy, strong, hard, tough; brown, fine 

 grained. Buds conical; flower buds vertically flattened. Leaves 

 opposite, simple, 3 to 5 inches long, oval, with midrib and parallel 

 side ribs indented above; whitish. Flowers, March to May, before 

 the leaves, in close clusters at ends of branches; greenish, small, 

 tubular; 4 white or pink involucral bracts, notched at tip, sur- 

 round the flower cluster. Fruit, October, ovoid, scarlet drupes, 

 ^ inch long, few in a cluster; seeds 2. Preferred habitat, woodlands 

 and rocky hillsides. Distribution, Massachusetts to Florida; 

 west to Michigan, Missouri and Texas. Uses: Hardy and 

 handsome ornamental trees. Wood used for bearings in machin- 

 ery, hubs, tool handles; also for v/ood engravings and wood 

 carving. Bark yields a drug like quinine; also a red dye. 



The striking thing about the flowering dogwood in winter is 

 the alligator-skin appearance of its grey, checkered bark. This 

 identifies it in any stretch of woodland without further aid to the 

 observer. One notices, too, the greyness and the platformed 

 stratification of its bushy top, from whose larger branches the 



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