GETTING AC^AINTED WITH THE TREES 



from arduous weather, and its autumn store of 

 sustenance for our feathered friends, is in dan- 

 ger of extinction from the forest because its 

 hardy, smooth, even - grained white wood has 

 been found to be especially available in the 

 "arts"? I feel like begging for the life of 

 every dogwood, as too beautiful to be destroyed 

 for any mere utility. 



I have been wondering as to the reason 

 for the naming of the cornuses as dogwoods, 

 and find in Bailey's great Cyclopedia of Hor- 

 ticulture the definite statement that the name 

 was attached to an English red -branched spe- 

 cies because a decoction of the bark was used 

 to wash mangy dogs ! This is but another 

 illustration of the inadequacy and inappropriate- 

 ness of "common" names. 



There are many good dogwoods — the Cor- 

 nus family is admirable, both in its American 

 and its foreign members — but I must not be- 

 come encyclopedic in these sketches of just a 

 few tree favorites. I will venture to mention 

 one shrub dogwood — I never heard its common 

 name, but it has three botanical names {Cornus 

 sericea, or ccerulea^ or Amomum^ the latter pre- 



200 



