DOGWOOD FAMILY 



bitter and aromatic flesh which no normal appetite could 

 crave. 



The generic name of this group of trees is easily explained, 

 for Cornus is derived from cornu, a horn, and finds its justi- 

 fication in the well known hardness of the wood. Dogwood, 

 however, has a different origin. Usually, the name of an 

 animal attached to a plant means that the plant in question 

 was believed by the early simplers, who as a rule gave the 

 common names, to be either beneficial or baneful to that 



animal ; for example, 

 sheep sorrel, catnip, 

 wolfsbane. But dog 

 and horse in combina- 

 tion may and often do 

 mean simply worthless, 

 or coarse. The early 

 botanists, like the bib- 

 lical writers and Shake- 

 speare, held the dog in 

 slight repute. It is 

 therefore questionable 

 whether the name Dog- 

 wood was meant to con- 

 vey contempt for the 

 tree as worthless for 

 timber, or whether it 

 referred to the value of its astringent. bark as a cure for the 

 mange in dogs. 



There.are more dogwoods in North America than anywhere 

 else in the world ; sixteen species have been distinguished. 

 Three of these are trees, two found east of the Rocky Moun- 

 tains and one upon the Pacific slope. The others are mostly 

 shrubs. One herb of the family, the Dwarf Cornel, grows in 

 northern woods. In the early tertiary epoch Cornus inhab- 

 ited the arctic regions and in the eocene period, forms now 

 existing appeared in Europe. 



Dogwood, Cornus florida. Fruit y z r to ^' long. 



174 



