38 



luck if he casts his line when the dogwood is in flower. A poet 



writes 



White dogAvood blossoms hold my heart, 

 But rare pink ones I know, 

 That make the wonder of this world 

 Into the heart's deeps go. 



White dogwood, ivory beauty rare, 

 Spreads far its net of dreams. 

 But where a rosy dogAvood tree 

 Stands by two silver streams 



My heart has lingered, lost to all 

 That makes a world. 



Later in the year, C. florida leaves blaze with color. Its 

 berries are red. Cornus is patriotic, for some of the shrubby 

 species have white and some have blue fruits. In October, a 

 New Jersey woodland of pines towering above dogwoods and 

 edged with red gum-trees and with a carpet of bright huckle- 

 berry bushes makes a soul-satisfying sight. 



Usually a symmetrical tree with almost horizontal branches, 

 the dogwood can adapt itself to varied habitats. It can be a 

 tree of considerable girth and height, or it can be a crooked, 

 spindly one pushing itself from between boulders and spreading 

 its bloom over the rocks as may be seen on the banks of the 

 upper Delaware River. 



There are many species of Cornus. Most of them are shrubs. 

 The silky dogwood called Kinnikinnick grows with thickets of 

 witch hazel in Pennsylvania. Kinnikinnick means mixture. 

 Country people in former days mixed the dried leaves and 

 scraped inner bark with tobacco for their pipes. 



From the bark of the roots and stems of the Pacific coast 

 dogwood was obtained a bitter extract which was used as a 

 substitute for quinine in fevers. In Edinburgh, an extract from 

 a Scotch dogwood is used in the examination of eyes. The 

 powdered bark may be used as a tooth powder. 



The word Cornus means horn, the wood is hard, tough, fine 

 and smooth. It is used for shuttles, mallet heads, skewer tips, 

 pulleys, etc. It is high in price because of the limited supply. 

 The common name was given because the hard wood was used 



