in early spring with the whiteness of its floral leaves and in autumn
with the splendour of its foliage and the brilliancy of its fruit. No
tree is more desirable in the garden or park in regions where the
summer's sun is sufficiently hot to ensure the production of its flowers
through the perfect development of the branchlets." The Jamaica dogwood,
the root-bark of which is poisonous, is the species _Piscidia
Erythrina_, of the natural order Leguminosae.

DOL, a town of north-western France, in the department of
Ille-et-Vilaine, 36 m. N. of Rennes on the Western railway. Pop. (1906)
3543. Dol is situated to the south-west of the rich agricultural
district known as the marsh of Dol, where market-gardening is especially
flourishing. The streets are still rendered picturesque by houses of the
14th and 15th centuries, which form deep arcades by the projection of
their upper storeys: and, high above all, rises the grey granite of the
cathedral, mainly of the 13th century, which in the middle ages ranked
as the metropolitan church of all Brittany, and still keeps fresh the
name of Bishop St Samson, who, having fled, as the legend tells, from
the Saxon invaders of England, selected this spot as the site of his
monastery. To the architect it is interesting for the English character
of its design, and to the antiquarian, for its stained-glass windows of
the 13th century, and for the finely sculptured tomb of Bishop Thomas
James (d. 1504). About 1-1/2 m. from the town is the _pierre de Champ
Dolent_, a menhir some 30 ft. in height; not far off stands the great
granite rock of Mont Dol, over 200 ft. in height, surmounted by the
statue and chapel of Notre-Dame de l'Esperance. Dol has trade in grain,
vegetables and fruit, tobacco is cultivated in the neighbourhood and
there are salt-marshes. Tanning and leather-currying are carried on in
the town. The town was unsuccessfully besieged by William the Conqueror,
taken by Henry II. in 1164 and by Guy de Thouars in 1204. In 1793 it
witnessed the defeat of the republican forces by the Vendeans who had
taken refuge within its walls. The bishopric established in the 6th
century was suppressed in 1790.

DOLABELLA, PUBLIUS CORNELIUS, Roman general and son-in-law of Cicero,
was born about 70 B.C. He was by far the most important of the
Dolabellae, a family of the patrician gens Cornelia. In the civil wars
he at first took the side of Pompey, but afterwards went over to Caesar,
an