DOGWOOD. A name given to some of the shrubby and arborescent species of the genus Corrals. acre are about tvventy-five species indigenous to Europe. Asia, and North America, most of which are shrubs, although a few become trees. The common dogwood (('urn us sangui nea) of Europe is a shrub 12 to 18 feet high. As with all the larger shrubs and trees of the genus. the wood is hard and the bark bitter. The fruit is small and in France an oil used in soap making is expressed front it. The Cornelia!) cherry (Corults nias), also a native of Europe, yields an edible fruit, which is sometimes used for preserves. Cornus kousa and Cornus eapitata are trees in the eastern part of Asia, and Cornus florida, Counts alternifolia. and Cornus Nuttallii in the United States. The last-named species is the largest of the genus, trees often reaching a height of 70 to 90 feet and a diameter of two feet. It is confined to the Pacific Coast region from British Columbia southward. The common spe cies in the United States is Cornus florida, which is found from Massachusetts to Texas. It is a small tree rarely more than 30 feet tall, and is well known on account of its four, sometimes more, white or pink showy bracts ('flowers'). which surround the inconspicuous greenish-yel low true flowers. in Cornus Nuttallii the bracts are a deep pink and are four or five inches across, making the tree a very striking object in the forest. The berries are red and remain on the trees during most of the winter. The wood is NO) ite. hard, and fine-grained. and is much used for inlaying, turning, etc. The bark of Collins
florida contains a hitter tonic principle somewhat resembling that found in cinchona. like which it is used to some extent in the treatment of fevers. Other species also contain it, but in smaller quantities. Two dwarf herbaceous spe• eies are common at high latitudes. Cornus Cana densis and Cornus sueciea. They are but a few inches high. have small, white-braeted clusters of flowers aml red berries, often called 'hunch berries,' from their habit of grow th. The shrubby species are common along watercourses and do not have bracts to their flowers. Some of them are quite showy when in flower, and also in winter, when their stems are bright red. The autumn coloring of all the species is very strik ing, red colors prevailing. in the West Indies, PisciOia erythrina, a leguminous tree, is known as dogwood. Its timber is hard and very durable. The bark contains a narcotic substance fre quently used for stupefying fish, and as an ano dyne in medicine. Poison dogwood. or poison sumac, as it is more properly called, is Rhus venenata, a species nearly related to and greatly resembling the 11hus vernix of Japan, one of the trees from which, through the action of the lac insect (01Strricr tersest 1, the lac of eommerce is derived. Poison sumac can be distinguished from the non-poisonous species of sumac by its spread ing tlower•clusters and white berries. The dower clusters of harmless species are very compact and the berries red. See CoIINEI,.