DOGWOOD FAMILY 



bitter and aromatic flesh \yhich 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 



long. 



174 



