DOGWOOD (according to Prior, Ang. Sax. dole, a brooch-pin), the name applied to plants of the genua Cornus, of the natural order Comaceae or cornels. The common dogwood, prick-wood, skewer-wood, or so-called dogberry, C. sanguinea, is a shrub reaching a height of 8 or 9 feet, common in hedges, thickets, and plantations in Great Britain. Its branches are dark-red; the leaves egg-shaped, pointed, about 2 inches long by l¾ broad, and turning red in autumn; and the flowers dull white, in terminal cymes. The fruits are of a black purple, are bitter, and one-seeded, and contain a considerable percentage of oil, which in some places is employed for lamps, and in the manufacture of soap. The wood is white and very hard, and like that of other species of the genus is used for making ladder-spokes, wheel-work, skewers, forks, and other implements, and gunpowder charcoal. The red berries of the dwarf species, C. suecica, of the Scotch Highlands are eaten, and are reputed to be tonic in properties. C. mascula, the Cornelian Cherry, a native of Europe and Northern Asia, bears a pulpy and edible fruit, which when unripe contains much tannin. It is the Akeπia of the Greeks, and the Kizziljiek of the Turks; by the latter the wood is employed for giving a red dye. The bark of the handsome Flowering Dogwood, C. florida, and of other American species, is valued as a stomachic and febrifuge, and is administered as a substitute for Peruvian bark. The Jamaica Dogwood, the root-bark of which is poisonous, is the species Piscidia Erythrina, of the natural order Leguminosae.