DOGWOOD. 
119 
10th or 15th of May, while the leaves are only beginning to unfold them- 
selves. The flowers are small, yellowish and collected in bunches, which 
are surrounded with a very large involucre composed of 4 white floral 
leaves, sometimes inclining to violet. This fine involucre constitutes all 
the beauty of the flowers, which are very numerous, and which, in their 
season, robe the tree in white, like a full blown Apple tree, and render it 
one of the fairest ornaments of the American forests. 
The seeds, of a vivid, glossy red, and of an oval shape, are always 
united. They remain upon the trees till the first frosts, when, notwithstand- 
ing their bitterness, they are devoured by the Robin, Turdus migraiorius, 
which about this period arrives from the northern regions. 
The wood is hard, compact, heavy, and fine grained, and is susceptible 
of a brilliant polish. The sap is perfectly white, and the heart is of a 
chocolate color. This tree is not large enough for works which require 
pieces of considerable volume ; it is used for the handles of light tools, 
such as mallets, small vises, etc. In the country, some farmers select it 
for harrow teeth, for the liâmes of horses’ collars, and also for lining the 
runners of sledges ; but to whatever purpose it is applied, being liable to 
split, it should never be wrought till it is perfectly seasoned. The shoots, 
when 3 or 4 years old, are found proper for the light hoops of small, port- 
able casks ; but the consumption in this way is inconsiderable. In the 
Middle States, the cogs of mill-wheels are made of Dogwood, and its di- 
vergent branches are taken for the yokes which are put upon the necks of 
swine, to prevent their breaking into cultivated enclosures. Such are the 
profitable uses of this tree ; it affords also excellent fuel, but it is too small 
to be brought into the markets of the cities. 
The Uher or interior bark of the Dogwood is extremely bitter, and proves 
an excellent remedy in intermittent fevers. It has been known and suc- 
cessfully used by the country people, as a specific in these maladies, for 
more than fifty years. Its medicinal properties were made the subject of 
a thesis defended in the College of Physicians at Philadelphia, in 1803, in 
which was presented an analysis of the Bark of the Dogwood and of the 
Blue Berried Dogwood, compared with the Peruvian bark; by the experi- 
ments made on this occasion, the Dogwood bark wms shown to have a close 
analogy to the Peruvian bark, and to be capable, in many cases, of sup- 
plying its place with success. The author of this excellent piece cites a 
physician of Pennsylvania, who, during twenty years, had constantly em- 
ployed it, and who estimated 35 grains of it to be equivalent to 30 grains 
of the Peruvian bark. The only inconvenience accompanying its use was 
that, if taken within a year after being stript from the tree, it sometimes 
occasioned acute pains of the bowels ; but this evil was remedied by add- 
ing to it 5 grains of Virginia Snake-root, Aristolochia serpentaria. 
The same author gives a receipt for making an excellent ink, in which 
