FLOWERING DOGWOOD 



(Cormis Florida) 



THE dogwood or cornel family is old but not numerous. It origi- 

 nated several hundred thousand years ago and spread over much 

 of the world, but preferred the temperate latitudes. One species at least 

 crossed the equator and established itself in the highlands of Peru. 

 There are forty or fifty species in all, about one-third of them in the 

 United States, but most are shrubs. Black gum and tupelo are members 

 of the family, and are giants compared with the dogwoods. In Europe 

 the tree is usually called cornel, and that has been made the family name. 

 It is a very old word, coined by the Romans before the days of Caesar. 

 They so named it because it was hard like horn (cornus meaning horn 

 in the Latin language). They used it as shafts of spears, and so common 

 was that use that when a speaker referred to a spear he simply called it 

 by the name of the wood of the handle or shaft, as when Virgil described 

 a combat which was supposed to have occurred 800 years before the 

 Christian era, and used the words: "Clogged in the wound the Italian 

 cornel stood." 



The qualities of this wood which led to important uses among the 

 Romans, have always made dogwood a valuable material. Civilized 

 nations do not need it for spear shafts, but they have other demands 

 which call for large amounts. 



The flowering dogwood has other names in this country. It is 

 generally known simply as dogwood, but it is called boxwood in Connecti- 

 cut, Rhode Island, New York, Mississippi, Michigan, Kentucky, and 

 Indiana; false box-dogwood in Kentucky; New England boxwood in 

 Tennessee; flowering cornel in Rhode Island; and cornel in Texas. 



Its range extends from Massachusetts through Ontario and Mich- 

 igan to Missouri, south to Florida, and west to Texas. The area where 

 it grows includes about 800,000 square miles. It is most common and 

 of largest size in the South, comparatively rare in the North, generally 

 occurs in the shade of taller trees, and prefers well-drained soil, but is not 

 particular whether it is .fertile or thin. 



The dogwood is valuable as ornament and for its wood. It was 

 formerly a source of medicine, from roots, bark, and flowers; but it seems 

 to have been largely displaced by other drugs; was once considered a 

 good substitute for quinine, that use having been learned from Indian 

 doctors. The Indians dug roots for a scarlet dye with which the vain 

 warrior stained escutcheons on buckskin, and colored porcupine quills 

 and bald eagle feathers for decorating his moccasins and his hair. 



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