1006s THE STORY OF PLANT LIPe 
HAWTHORN (Crataegus Oxyacantha). 
The first Latin name has reference to the hardness 
of the wood, a well-known feature, the second to an 
equally characteristic peculiarity, the sharp-pointed 
thorns by which the stem and branches are everywhere 
thickly beset. 
On this account the Hawthorn is one of those ~ 
plants which are particularly weli-fitted to cope with 
others and their surroundings in the struggle for 
existence. In the Midlands they are perhaps better 
developed than in any other part of the country, for 
the well-known “ bullfinches” area particular feature 
of the Shires famed for their excellent hunting 
attractions. 
In the British Isles it grows everywhere except in 
the Orkneys. In Yorkshire it is found at a height of 
1800 ft. It is probably so wide-spread owing to 
extensive planting since the prevalence of enclosures, 
and may not be native everywhere, though now it is 
doubtless largely rendered so by dispersal by birds 
from planted hedgerows. 
It is nowadays largely a hedgerow plant, where 
owing to layering it is, if kept down, different in 
habit to the uncut tree in the hedge or in the open. 
It is frequent in parks, where it attains a large size, 
being tall and wide-spreading. 
It has an erect trunk, often twisted, with rimose 
bark, branching at some distance from the ground. 
The English name Hawthorn means hedge thorn, 
hence it was probably very early used for fences 
