ROSACEA 



67 



the clusters of sweet-swelling white flowers, more or 

 less varied with pink, and in cultivated varieties 

 often wholly pink, are well known to every one. 

 The fruit consists of a hard seed covered with a 

 yellowish wax-like substance, and bright red out- 

 side. These fruits are called haws, and are 

 edible, but rather tasteless. There is a popular 

 idea that when hips and haws are numerous we 

 may expect a hard winter, because a good provision 

 has thus been made for the birds during the cold 

 weather. 



Many insects feed on Hawthorn, but most of 

 them will also eat Blackthorn and other trees as 

 well. Among these are the caterpillars of several 

 interesting butterflies and moths ; among others, 

 those of the Black-veined White Butterfly {Aporia 

 cratc?gi). The caterpillar is grey below, and black, 

 with two reddish stripes, above ; the butterfly, 

 which measures 2k inches in expanse, is white, with 

 slender black veins, but no spots. It appears in 

 June, and has become very rare in England of 

 late years, though formerly more common. The 

 Brimstone Moth (Rumia crat<zgata), also named 



after the Hawthorn, is, however, very abundant. 

 The caterpillar is green or brown, with 3 small 

 projections on the back, and 14 legs ; the moth 

 measures about an inch and a half in expanse ; it 

 has a slender body, and broad yellow wings, with 

 some reddish brown spots on the front edge. 



Another interesting insect attached to the Haw- 

 thorn is a large Saw-fly {Trichiosoma lucoruni). Its 

 green grub has 22 legs, which is alone sufficient to 

 distinguish it from the caterpillar of a butterfly or 

 moth, and it forms a hard brownish oval cocoon, 

 which opens at the end like a round lid. The 

 Saw-fly is nearly two inches in expanse ; the body 

 is black, stout and hairy, the four wings are trans- 

 parent, with narrow brown borders, and the antennas 

 are knobbed at the end, almost like those of a 

 butterfly. 



The various wild species of Cherry are not the 

 original stock of our orchard cherries, and their 

 fruit is hardly edible ; but the Crab Apple, the 

 Wild Pear, and the Medlar are the trees from 

 which most of the cultivated varieties of apples, 

 pears and medlars have been derived. The Apple 



