a, flower.
Dogwood, or DOGBERRY, the name usually given to some of the trees and shrubs of the genus Cornus (see CORNEL, CORNACEÆ). The Common Dogwood of Europe (C. sanguinea) is a shrub of remarkable beauty in autumn from the deep redness of its foliage. The wood makes the very best charcoal for gunpowder. It is very hard, and is made into skewers, cogs for wheels, &c., and in former times it was in request for making arrows. The small bitter fruit yields as much as one-third of its weight of an oil resembling that of olive. The wood of Rhamnus frangula, the berry-bearing alder, is also used by gunpowder makers, and called by them dogwood.—The Dogwood of North America (C. florida) is a very ornamental little tree with whitish flowers, surrounded by large white bracts, which appear before the leaves in early spring, and scarlet berries in winter. The wood is white and fine grained, and suitable for inlaying, and the bark, like that of some allied species, is a useful febrifuge.—Jamaica Dogwood is Piscidia erythrina, a papilionaceous timber-tree; the cortex of the root is powerfully narcotic, used for stupefying fish or deadening the pain of toothache. See also SUMACH.