Sttperstitions and Facts coimcctcd zoit/i Trees. 645 



liat during a thimderstonn to guard the wearer from tlie lightning. 

 The most remarkable legend connected with the hawthorn is that of 

 the Glastonbury thorn. It is said that Joseph of Arimathea, after 

 the burial of Christ, came to England, attended by twelve companions, 

 to found the first Christian church in this island ; and, guided by 

 divine impulse, he proceeded to Glastonbury for that purpose. It 

 was Christmas Day when he arrived at the spot where he had been 

 commanded to build a church in honour of the Virgin jNIary, and 

 finding that the natives did not appear inclined to believe in his 

 mission, he prayed to God to perform a miracle to convince them. 

 His prayer was immediately answered ; and, on striking his staff into 

 the ground it immediately shot forth into leaves and blossoms. The 

 legend adds that this thorn is still in existence, and still blossoms 

 annually on Christmas Day. The French have a legend that, on the 

 day after the massacre of St, Bartholomew, on August 25th, an old 

 thorn in the churchyard of St. Innocent in Paris came into blossom a 

 second time. The Greeks and Eomans gathered the May in honour of 

 Flora, to whom this plant was dedicated, and whose festival began on 

 May Day ; and the Greeks, even of the present time, preserve the 

 memorial of this custom by hanging a garland of hawthorn flowers 

 against their doors on the 1st of May. Stowe tells us that Henry 

 VIIL, with Queen Katharine, and the lords and ladies of their court, 

 rode out a-Maying from Greenwich to Shooter's Hill ; and in a curious 

 MS. entitled "The State of Eton School," a.d. 1560, it is stated that 

 "on the day of St. Philip and St. James (1st May), if it be fair weather 

 and the master grant leave, those boys who choose it may rise at 

 four o'clock to gather May branches, if they can do it without wetting 

 their feet." 



It is a curious fact that the apple tree is distinguished by legends 

 in the mythologies of the Greeks, the Scandinavians; and the Druids. 

 The pagans believed that the golden fruit of the Hesperides, which 

 it was one of the labours of Hercules to obtain, in spite of the fierce 

 dragon that guarded them, and never slept, were apples; though 

 modern writers have supposed them to be oranges. In the " Edda " 

 we are told that the goddess Iduna had the care of apples which had 

 the power of conferring immortality ; and which were, consequently, 

 reserved for the gods, who ate of them when they began to feel them- 

 selves growing old. The Druids paid particular reverence to the 

 apple tree, because the mistletoe was supposed only to grow on it and 

 the oak, and also on account of the great usefulness of the fruit. 

 Hercules was worshipped by the Thebans under the name of Melius, 

 and apples were offered at his altars, and the ancient Welsh bards were 

 rewarded for excelling in song by " the token of apply spray." On 

 Christmas Eve the farmers and their men in Devonshire used to take 



