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 arule 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. 
Dogwood, Cornus florida. Fruit %’ to 34’ long. 
8 , 7 v4 & 
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. 
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