374 THE DOGWOOD FAMILY. 



it's food for worms. Like enough tain't no good for fire- wood." But 

 notwithstanding his depreciatory opinion of this individual which shows the 

 first ghmpses of briUiant scarlet in the autumn, it has a very decided use 

 among the people of this region. It is one of their " chaw sticks " or " tooth 

 brushes.'' And by these noneuphonious names is meant the little stick with 

 which they dip snuff. This practice is indeed very different from the one 

 wherein a pinch of the stuff is taken between the thumb and finger from an 

 enamelled box and inhaled through the nostrils. Those that really dip 

 snuff carry about a small stick nearly four inches long, and usually a bit of 

 the black gum because it is a wood that chews up well into a little brush at 

 the end. This they dip into snuff, or, when they cannot get it, into pul- 

 verised tobacco and then rub it up and down along the gums. Often an old 

 woman is seen with such a bit of wood sticking out from between her closed 

 lips. And it is not only the old women of the mountains that dip snuff. 

 The fairest of the young girls are sometimes well confirmed in the habit. 

 The region is one where even infants chew tobacco. In some places on 

 occasions of festivity the girls provide the snuff and the men the whiskey. 

 Who then shall doubt that opportunity is ripe for enjoyment ? 



N. ogecJie, sour tupelo or ogechee lime, grows mostly in river swamps 

 which during the greater part of the year are inundated. Its twigs have a 

 silvery grey bark, and even in old age the leaves underneath are densely 

 pubescent. After the foliage has fallen, bright red fruits gleam vividly from 

 the trees; they are larger than any others of the genus, measuring often 

 over an inch long and ripen in August. Their rather tart flavour causes 

 them in Georgia and South Carolina to be abundantly eaten by the people 

 as well as made into preserves. 



N. aqudtica, large tupelo, cotton gum, occurs as a large tree from 

 Florida northward to Virginia and Missouri. Its parts, when young, are 

 noticeably covered with a soft tomentum which, however, falls away as the 

 plant matures. In October, its dark blue drupes and wonderfully gay foli- 

 age cast a charm over many a southern scene. It was Linnseus who 

 named the genus after a water nymph ; for this species he knew, and it 

 confines itself to the swamps. 



THE WHITE=ALDER FAHILY. 



ClctJu'cicecc. 

 Trees, or shrubs with si7fiple, alternate, serrate leaves, and which bear 

 small ivhite flowers in long, narrow racemes. 



