12 THE FRUITS OF THE COUNTRY-SIDE 



their oracles, as did the Druids of Britain and Gaul, amidst 

 the oak groves. Ancient Persia, and ancient India, no less 

 show in their sculpture the veneration for the sacred tree, 

 and it would appear to be a cult common to almost all 

 forms of primitive religion the wide world over, and in 

 some mysterious way respondent and dependent on the 

 Tree of Life in the Paradise of God. 



The fruit of the hawthorn was held in much esteem 

 by the earlier writers, thus we find William Coles, in his 

 delightful book Adam in Eden, published in the year 

 1657, declaring that "the Powder of the Berries, or the 

 seeds of the Berries being given to drink in Wine, is 

 generally held to be singular good for the Dropsy." He 

 also affirms that " the Flowers steeped three days in Wine 

 and afterwards distilled in Glasse, and the water thereof 

 drunk, is a Soveraigne Remedy for the Pleurisy and for 

 inward tormenting paines, which is also signified by the 

 prickles that grow on this Tree." 



This significance of the prickles is an allusion to the 

 lively faith held by our forebears in what is called the 

 Doctrine of Signatures. This belief was that God in His 

 goodness to man, not only created herbs of healing for 

 the woes of suffering humanity, but also impressed them 

 with a definite sign of their special service, so that it needed 

 but reverend care and thoughtful observation to enable 

 the sufferer to see the guiding hand of Providence and 

 find the alleviation that he sought. In the present case the 

 prickles, prompt to wound, were a reminder of the sharp 

 pains of disease that this plant could in consequence heal. 

 Coles, therefore, declares elsewhere that " the distilled water 

 of the Flowers of hawthorne is not onely cooling, but drawing 



