188 THE APPLE FAMILY. 



copious and beautiful blossoms, which are crimson, pink, or white, but 

 never blue, form one of the chief ornaments of spring and early sum- 

 mer. The fruits are in many cases of eminent value, comprising, 

 among others, the apple, the pear, the quince, and the medlar. Cider 

 and perry, the wood of the pear-tree and of the white-beam, and the 

 mucilaginous seeds of the quince, bear further witness to the useful- 

 ness of the family. Geographically, it belongs to the whole of the 

 northern hemisphere, except the extremely cold parts, diminishing, 

 however, as the south is approached, and on the other side of the 

 equator is entirely unknown. 



The number of species is about two hundred, nine growing wild 

 in England, and three of them near Manchester. 



A. 

 Branches abounding -Nvith sharp thorns. 



1. Leaves feather-lobed, in three to five deep segments, g^^^^^ous ; | „ 



flowers corymbose, white, and fragrant ) 



B. 

 Thornless. 



2. Leaves oval, undivided, seiTate ; flowers in sessile umbels, petals ] Ty„ j, Apple 



usually flushed with pink J 



3. Leaves pinnate, the leaflets numerous, lanceolate, and serrate ; ) Mountain 



flowers in large corymbs, cream-coloured, and highly fragrant [ Ash. 



HABITATS AND LOCALITIES. 

 1. Hawthorn — [Craieegus Oxyacdntha.) 

 Planted everywhere for hedges. Apparently wild in Stalybridge 

 Brushes and at Charlesworth Coombs. Fl. May, June. 

 E. B. XXXV. 2504; Baxter, ii. 118. 



This is the lovely " May" which in early summer dapples every hedgerow with 

 flakes of white and odorous bloom, the buds having already been foremost to 

 grow green and announce the spring. In hedges, however (for which it is 

 invaluable), the proper character of the plant is suppressed, through the clipping 

 and imprisonment. It is only when standing independently, as in a park, or on a 

 lawn, or in the open spaces of a wood, where it can spread its branches freely, 

 and form the large round head characteristic of the species, that its proper 

 altitude and symmetry are attained, and then it is often one mass of snowy bloom, 

 and the very perfection of a canopy for a rustic seat. Burns never drew a finer 

 jticture than when he placed the " youthful, loving, modest pair" 



" Beneath the milk-white Thom that scents the evening gale." 

 The pink-flowered hawthorn, one of the moat beautiful trees in cultivation, the 

 double flowered, and the variegated-leaved, all common in gardens and shrub- 



