CORNEL TREE. 



105 



affirms it, upon his own knowledge and experience, that 

 one who has been bitten by a mad dog, if in a year after 

 he handle the wood of this tree till it grow warm, re- 

 lapses again into his former distemper.'" 



Such a tale may probably have originated in the notion 

 that no one having been bitten by a mad dog could sur- 

 vive a year : just as nurses will tell children that they 

 may catch a swallow if they can put a little salt upon its 

 tail ; or as a sailor will jocosely observe of a desolate and 

 barren shore, that it is death by law to fell a tree there, 

 simply because there are none to fell. 



This Cornel is a native of France, Switzerland, Car- 

 niola. Piedmont, Germany, Russia, &c. Tournefort 

 found both this and the female Cornel in the Levant. It 

 was cultivated by Gerarde in 1596. He says, " It 

 groweth not wild in England, but yet there be sundry 

 trees of them growing in the gardens of such as love rare 

 and dainty plaints : whereof I have a tree or two in my 

 garden."' 



It was formerly called the Cornelia, or Long Cherry- 

 tree, but these names are now seldom used. 



The Cornus sanguinea, or Common Dogwood, by 

 some called the female Cornel-tree, grows in the hedges, 

 in most parts of Europe, especially where the soil is 

 chalky. It flowers in June, and the berries ripen in 

 August. This bears a variety of names in different parts 

 of our country ; as Hound's-tree, Hound's-berry tree. 

 Dog-berry tree; Prickwood, from its use in making 

 skewers ; and Gat en, Gatten, or Gater tree. Chaucer 

 speaks of the fruit by the name of Gaitres-berries. 



It takes the specific name sanguinea from the vivid 

 red colour of the young shoots. By old authors it is 

 termed Virga sanguinea^ Bloody-rod. The French 



