Dogwood
a common name for plants of the genus Cornus, but more especially applied to C. sanguinea. The wood is hard, and is sometimes used for butchers' skewers, toothpicks, etc. The fruit is black, about the size of a currant, very bitter, and yields an oil used in France for burning in lamps and for soapmaking. The following are the best known varieties: 1. Cornus florida is a common American shrub, growing 6-10 feet in height, and bearing beautiful white clusters of flowers, enlivening the hedges and bush of the warmer portion of the United States. It is productive of a bark much valued as an antiperiodic in ague, etc., DOLCI and its wood, which is hard, white, and close grained, is useful in various ways.
One unique use of its small branches is to form tooth-brushes with which women in some of the Southern States "dip" snuff. 2. Euonymus europeus. Loudon says, "It is called dogwood because a decoction of its leaves was used to wash dogs to free them from vermin"; and this derivation receives some support from another of its synonyms, louse-berry tree.