encement of the 12th
century, which is thought to have been introduced by the Crusaders from
the East. The earliest example is found in the hall at Rabbath-Ammon in
Moab (c. A.D. 614) built by the Sassanians, where it decorates the arch
moulding of the blind arcades and the string courses. In the apse of the
church at Murano, near Venice, it is similarly employed. In the 12th and
13th centuries it was further elaborated with carving, losing therefore
its primitive form, but constituting a most beautiful decorative
feature. In Elgin cathedral the dog-tooth ornament in the archivolt
becomes a four-lobed leaf, and in Stone church, Kent, a much more
enriched type of flower. The term has been supposed to originate in a
resemblance to the dog-tooth violet, but the original idea of a
projecting tooth is a sufficient explanation.

DOGWOOD (i.e. wood of the dog-tree; referred by the _New English
Dictionary_ to "dog," apparently as indicating inferiority; but by
others connected with "dag," "dagger," and by Prior with A.S. _dolc_, a
brooch-pin), the name applied to plants of the genus _Cornus_, of the
natural order Cornaceae. The common dogwood, prick-wood, skewer-wood,
cornel or dogberry, _C. sanguinea_, is a shrub reaching a height of 8 or
9 ft., common in hedges, thickets and plantations in Great Britain. Its
branches are dark red; the leaves egg-shaped, pointed, about 2 in. long
by 1-1/2 broad, and turning red in autumn; the flowers are dull white, in
terminal clusters. The berries are small, of a black-purple, 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 Scottish Highlands, are eaten, and are
reputed to be tonic in properties. _C. mas_, the Cornelian cherry, a
native of Europe and Northern Asia, bears a pulpy and edible fruit,
which when unripe contains much tannin. It is a good garden plant, as is
also the North American species _C. florida_, one of the commonest trees
of the deciduous forests of the middle and southern states. Professor C.
S. Sargent (_Silva of North America_) describes it as "one of the most
beautiful of the small trees of the American forests, which it enlivens