explanation
explanation
____Reply Separator_____ The tree got its name from its berries, which were called "dogberries" because they were worthless?"dog" is commonly used among botanists to mean "inferior quality" or "worthlessness."
What are some other examples of dog meaning low quality in botany?
--Lia
-snip-
#2 seems likely. Especially when you make 'doggerwood', 'daggerwood'.
Jim
Thanks for the input from everyone. I was aware that the legend was only a legend with no basis in fact. It has charm but no logic. The reference from Jim certainly supports the daggerwood connection.
John
That legend reminded me of one I read as a kid 40 years ago. [one of those brainstorms that just makes forgetting where I parked the car even more frustrating]
I even checked the source & re-read it. Ernst Seton's "Library of Pioneering and Woodcraft" Vol V, has a legend of why the Dogwood's blossoms appear as they do. Seton has the devil sneaking into the garden of Eden to knock all the blossoms off the Dogwood. [it was Adam's favorite] Mr. Devil climbed a locust tree to get over the wall surrounding Eden-- but was foiled when he realized that the flowers were in the shape of a cross. All he could manage was to bite a chunk out of each petal.
This little escapade also caused the locust tree to grow thorns so that the devil couldn't use it to access the Garden again.
Just another example of the haphazardness of memory. I knew what a locust tree was as we had several on our property & I was all too familiar with their thorns. I don't think I ever saw a Dogwood, though, until I moved to VA a dozen years later. But I remembered the Dogwood part of the legend and not the locust.
Jim
Not sure about how it got the name Dogwood, but the history I read mentioned that the settlers called it "maulwood" because the wood is so hard, they made mauls out of it. I can attest to the wood being hard as rocks - when the big dogwood came down in our back yard one winter, we decided to have it cut up to use in making miniature dollhouse peices. It was a flaming pain to work with because it was so hard but, boy, did it make beautiful furniture (including a miniature Wooten desk!)
The idea of the dogwood flower as symbol of the crucifixion is old in North America, because the four petals can be imagined as a cross, & the southern species can be said to be colored with blood. But the specific story posted here is a modern invention. It was distributed especially in the 1950s & 1960s through many churches in the form of a post card, and has within the last five years been reprinted with new designs for further church use. Similar 1950s church postcards include "Legend of the Sand Dollar" & "Legend of the Starfish" & "Legend of the Spanish Moss" & "Legend of the Crucifix Fish (Sail Cat)" -- concocted miniature tales by the equivalent of anonymous Hallmark Card authors. There is one version of the postcard that is made out of wood (perhaps out of dogwood; it means to imply it is at any rate). Other variants were printed for tourist shops & would be titled "Legend of the Dogwood of Florida" or "Legend of the Dogwood of North Carolina" depending on where the cards were to be sold.
Postcard collectors can get these old christian church cards through eBay or Yahoo auctions pretty easily, as even the old ones are very common (for $1 to $5), & modern reprints can cost as little as 35 cents. The text was even reworked into a Hallmark style rhyme, very bad doggeral even worse than the prose vignette, but mainly it is the prose vignette printed against a dogwood photo or drawing. Here's a typical example, one of many:
Authentic folklore ends up with many variants rather than such simple uniformity as seen in the postcard-originated minor literary exercise. Christian symbology of the Passionflower for instance has many variants & amendments stacked upon it during the four hundred years it has circulated first among aboriginal converts in Central America. Dogwood legendry is actually quite rich, a mix of Native American lore fertilized with European flower lore. Among southern Native Americas it was a symbol of protection (possibly because the hard wood made good shields & clubs, and because dogwood was used medicinally). Cherokee believed a miniature people lived amidst dogwoods who were a divine race sent to teach the people to live in harmony with the woods. The dogwood people are extremely kind and take care of the old and infirm, and protect babies. When Cherokee came to speak English, they began to call the Dogwood People brownies. Among white imigrants Dogwood symbolized sacrifice because of the crucifix form of the flower, & the four-petalled flower became a common tombstone ornament, a symbol of hope (that death was not eternal).
-paghat the ratgirl
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