"gregpresley" wrote:

This legend, etc, may be told somewhere, but the dogwoods that we in America
are most familiar with, and also the people in Europe, are native to the
Americas, and would not have been found anywhere in Israel at any time.
Other dogwoods, such as Cornus kousa, and the c. siberica, are native to
eastern Asia, and would also have never been found in Israel. It makes a
sweet, if terribly naive legend, however.

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 frustratingg]

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