Read Online 100 Flowers and How They Got Their Names by Diana Wells - Free Book Online Page B

lawyer next door, full of grace, gets only a respectful obituary.

DOGWOOD
    BOTANICAL NAME :
Cornus
. FAMILY :
Cornaceae
.

    Dogwood was supposedly used to build the Trojan Horse.
Cornus mas
, or cornelian cherry, was valued by the Greeks for its exceptionally hard wood, used to make javelins and spearheads. John Parkinson said, “The wood    is very hard, like unto horne, and thereof it obtained the name” (from
cornu
, Latin for “horn”).
    How it became “dogwood” has to do with its edible and medicinal qualities. The berries of the
Cornus mas
are said to be edible and were supposedly fed to Odysseus’s men when they were changed into pigs by Circe.
Cornus sanguinea
, or English dogwood, was called by John Parkinson “the Doggeberry tree, because the berries are not fit to be eaten, or to be given to a dogge.” The Victorian garden writer John Loudon said that it was named because a decoction of its leaves was used to wash fleas from dogs, and L. H. Bailey said in 1922 that it was used to bathe “mangy dogs.”
    The American eastern dogwood,
Cornus florida
, is believed by some to be yet another “Crucifixion” tree (the tree on which Christ was crucified), although it is not native to the Middle East or Europe. Itsbracts, leaf-like organs that look like flower petals, are shaped like a cross and at the base of each is a brown stain, like a blood spot made by a nail. Dogwoods need cold winters to set flowers, but late frosts will ruin the spectacular bracts that surround the cluster of insignificant yellow flowers. The American Pacific dogwood, or
Cornus nuttallii
, has four to six bracts, and they are not dented at the top like those of the eastern dogwood. It is named after Thomas Nuttall (see “Larkspur”). Late-flowering Asian dogwoods such as the Kousa dogwood of Japan were introduced to America and Europe at the beginning of this century. They do not flower until their leaves are out, whereas the American dogwoods suddenly ornament bare branches with a mass of papery blooms.
    The berries of the
Cornus mas
are edible and were supposedly fed to Odysseus’s men when they were changed into pigs by Circe.
    At different times, dogwood leaves, berries, and bark have been used to intoxicate fish, make gunpowder, soap, and dye (used to color the Turkish fez), make ink, and clean teeth (the twigs if chewed first will separate into a primitive toothbrush). Bark of the dogwood tree contains small amounts of quinine and “it is possible to ward off fevers by merely chewing the twigs” (Bailey). According to Peter Kalm, American settlers believed so strongly in the power of the dogwood that when cattle fell down for want of strength the settlers would “tie a branch of this tree on their neck, thinking it [would] help them.” He does not comment on whether this helped or not, but he does say that “it is a pleasure to travel through the woods, so much are they beautified by the blossom of this tree.” That, at least, is still true.

EVENING PRIMROSE
    BOTANICAL NAME :
Oenothera
. FAMILY :
Onagraceae
.

    All evening primroses originate from the American continent. They came to Europe in the seventeenth century and were called “primroses” because their flower resembled the yellow spring primrose (or “first rose”) of Britain. John Parkinson called it the “Tree Primrose of Virginia” and said, “Unto what tribe or kindred I might referre this plant, I have stood long in suspense.” Now we know that there are about 124 species of evening primrose, which form a “tribe” of their own.
    As early as 1729, the Quaker gardener John Bartram had twelve different kinds of evening primrose growing in his botanical garden near Philadelphia. His garden formed the first collection of American native plants, and he traveled all over the East Coast to find them. He sent hundreds to the Quaker gardener and