236 
LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 
the sharp frosts have lessened their bitterness, they are 
the food of the robin, which, at that late season, eats them 
greedily. 
The foliage in autumn is also highly beautiful, and must 
be considered as contributing to the charms of this tree. 
The colour it assumes is a deep lake-red ; and it is at that 
season as easily known at a distance by its fine colouring, 
as the Maple, the Liquidambar, and the Nyssa, of which we 
have already spoken. Taking into consideration all these 
ornamental qualities, and also the fact that it is every day 
becoming scarcer in our native wilds, we think the Dog- 
wood tree should fairly come under the protection of the 
picturesque planter, and well deserves a place in the plea- 
sure-ground and shrubbery. 
The wood is close-grained, hard, and heavy, and takes a 
good polish. It is too small to enter into general use, but is 
often employed for the lesser utensils of the farm. The bark 
has been very successfully employed by physicians in Phila- 
delphia, and elsewhere, and is found to possess nearly the 
same properties as the Peruvian bark. Bigelow states in his 
American Botany, that its use in fevers has been known 
and practised in many sections of the Union by the country 
people, for more than fifty years. 
Besides this native species there is an European dogwood, 
{Cornus mascula ,) commonly called the Cornelian cherry, 
which is now planted in many of our gardens, and grows 
to the height of twenty or thirty feet. The small yellow 
flowers come out close to the branches in March or April, 
and the whole tree is quite handsome in autumn, from the 
size and colour of its fine oval scarlet berries. These are as 
large as a small cherry, transparent, and hang for a long 
