HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE- GOSSIP. 



89 



other shrubs. Such a circumstance takes place 

 every year among apple and pear-trees, and may be 

 seen recorded in local newspapers as recurrent as 

 the stereotyped "big gooseberry." The curious 

 circumstance as to the Glastonbury Thorn was, that 

 its second crop of flowers occurred so late in the 

 year that they could be accredited to Christmas 

 Eve. But it must be observed that when the style 

 was altered by Act of Parliament, and eleven days 

 omitted to correct the Calendar, the " Holy Thorn " 

 did not recognize this alteration, and would not 

 show expanded flowers until Old Christmas Day. 

 This was some years since put to the test in Here- 

 fordshire, where there were, and still are, several 

 " Holy Thorns " ; and so determined were the in- 

 habitants of the rural parishes to trust to the 

 flowering of the Thorn rather than to the Calendar, 

 that the clergymen of many country places felt 

 obliged to hold services in their churches on Old 

 Christmas Day. I have in various years received 

 branches from "Holy Thorns" in January, having 

 mostly uuexpanded flowers, soon withering, and no 

 fruit is produced from these secondary flowers. It 

 is generally asserted that all these Christmas- 

 flowering thorns are the product of the original 

 Glastonbury Thorn, which was destroyed by Puri- 

 tanical hands during the civil commotions in 

 Charles the First's time ; but this I think very 

 dubious. Quaint old Aubrey, in his " Natural 

 Remarques in the County of Wilts " (16S5), states 

 that " in Parham Parke, in Suffolke (Mr. Boutele's), 

 is a pretty ancient thorne that blossoms like that at 

 Glastonbury ; the people flock thither to see it on 

 Christmas Day." Aubrey further says, that he was 

 informed by Dr. Ezerel Tony, " that about Runmy- 

 marsh [Romney] in Kent are thornes naturally like 

 that at Glastonbury." He mentions also that " in 

 the rode that leads from Worcester to Droitwiche 

 is a blackthorn hedge at Clayn, half a mile long or 

 more, that blossomes about Christmas Day, for a 

 week or more together." This second flowering of 

 trees and shrubs must then be considered a natural 

 development, under special circumstances, which 

 may or may not be continued, and certainly cannot 

 be insured to appear on a particular day, though 

 often doing so, or near enough to the time for the 

 credulous. The real miracle, as affirmed by the 

 monks of Glastonbury, was, that Joseph of Arima- 

 thea, after landing in Britain, paused upou Weary- 

 all Hill, near Glastonbury, and planted his staff in 

 the ground, whence sprung the wonderful Thorn 

 that flowered every year at Christmas. That the 

 tree really did arise from a thorn staff stuck in the 

 ground by some pious hand, if not the scriptural 

 Joseph, is not improbable, and this fact, noticed by 

 the abbatial ecclesiastics, was a good thing to con- 

 vert into the miraculous, while the double flowering 

 was luckily superadded. Hawthorn sticks will, in 

 fact, vegetate, like willow-branches ; and Sir T. 



Dick Lauder, in his edition of Gilpin's "Forest 

 Scenery," mentions the case of a hawthorn stake, 

 taken from a dead hedge, which, having one end 

 sharpened and stuck in the ground, " spontaneously 

 budded, put forth branches, and became a thriving 

 tree." So I myself, some time since, brought home 

 a tall, denuded hawthorn stick that 1 had picked 

 up, which was stuck in the mould of the garden to 

 prop up some plants ; and this has rooted, put forth 

 branches, and is now a flourishing tree of consider- 

 able height. It flowered abundantly last year ; but 

 as yet has produced no secondary inflorescence. — 

 Edwin. Lees, F.L.S., Green Hill Summit, Worcester. 



Eucalyptus Globulus.— Before we can take for 

 granted that, because the plants in the garden of 

 the Botanic Society have been killed by the severe 

 frost, the climate of England is too cold for their 

 cultivation, as lately stated by the chairman of the 

 Society, it is important that cultivators should have 

 further information on the subject. The age of the 

 plants was not stated, though much may depend 

 upon whether they were old enough to have hard- 

 ened their wood and bark, which, if only just reared, 

 could not have been the case. In the Gardeners' 

 Chronicle of 13th February, a writer is referred to, 

 who says :— " I have known the plant pass through 

 frost (in Ireland) that killed some, and severely 

 injured other plants of seemingly harder nature, 

 such as Cupressus macrocarpa, C. goveuiana, C. 

 lausoniana, and Cryptomeria japonica. In Hazle- 

 wood Gardens, Sligo, with exception of a few leaves 

 being browned, the Eucalpytus has received no 

 injury. These trees have been planted nearly five 

 years. In Limerick it is quite hardy, and I think 

 it has proved itself capable of standing any degree 

 of cold that it may be liable to." In the course of 

 last year I heard of several plants in this and ad- 

 joining counties, three, four, and five years old. 

 Many readers of Science-Gossip must be able to 

 give information regarding them, whether they have 

 suffered by the frost, and to what extent. Several 

 young plants, reared from seed last spring, may now 

 (8th March) be seen at Cliftonville Nursery, which 

 have had the upper half of the stems of three out 

 of four and all their leaves killed ; of the fourth, 

 the stem is killed to within two or three inches of 

 the ground (the leaves, though dead and shrivelled, 

 have not fallen), the lower parts of the stems and 

 bark are, however, quite green, the bark having a 

 soft, tender, herbaceous appearance, and seemingly 

 alive. Those who can give information should state 

 whether the situation is exposed or sheltered, 

 whether the soil is moist or dry, and if the plants 

 have been kept plentifully watered in order to meet 

 the constant absorption and evaporation. I am 

 I told that young plants, three and four feet high, 

 | kept in the house in large pots, require a great and 

 i frequent supply of water. We may hope to learn 



