"Let dead names be eternized in dead stone,
But living names by living shafts be known.
Plant thou a tree whose leaves shall sing
Thy deeds and thee each fresh, recurrent spring.”
Nowhere in the world is the dogwood as abundant and as beautiful
as in North Carolina. Has Nature’s garden a more decorative ornament
than this flowering tree, whose spreadmg branches and loose clusters of
flowers whiten the woodlands in May and June as if an untimely snowstorm
had come down upon them, and in Autumn paints the landscape with
glorious crimson, scarlet, and gold, dulled only by the cluster of red berries
among the foliage.
Even before the leaves fall in Autumn, the round buds for next year’s
blooms appear on the twigs, to remain in evidence all winter with its
scarlet fruit. When the buds begin to swell in the Spring, the four red
dish-purple leaves expand, revealing a dozen or more tiny green flowers
clustered within.
The dogwood is truly a fit symbol of immortality . Is it then not fit
ting that it be the state flower of a state which had the first English Colony
in America—a state which is one of the original thirteen—a state from
which rises the oldest mountains on the continent—a state which boasts
of the first state university in the United States—a state with a history and
a tradition of which we are justly proud?
Yes the dogwood is our svmbol of immortality, and of peace, and of
faith. It is the living sym’'ol of "The Old North State Forever.”