90 GUERNSEY. 
shy of flowering. The prevailing form, as far as my observation 
goes, is the var. dumalis, Bechst. (var. sarmentacea of Fl. Sarn.). 
Mr. C. Andrews has found in a hedge near Lilyvale (vii1.) the var. 
biserrata, Merat (vinacea, Baker); and Babington records the var. 
-surculosa, Woods, from ‘near Moulin de Veschelle,’ a place unknown 
to me, unless it be a printer’s error for L’Echelle, a watermill in the 
“Talbots Valley. The Roses of this island have not been properly 
studied and other varieties are certain to be found. The following 
additional varieties of . canina have been collected in Alderney: 
lutetiana, Lem., sphaerica, Gren., verticillacantha, Merat, dumetorum, 
‘Thuill., and decipiens, Dum. 
(Rosa stylosa, Desv., occurs in Alderney and Sark.) 
Crataegus Oxyacantha, L. Hawthorn. White Thorn. 
Native. First record: Gosselin, 1815. 
Very common. I have only seen the var. monogyna, Jacq., in 
this island. 
The patois name, unlike the French Awdépine, is Bianche Epeine, 
cand the fruits are called, as in Normandy, Aégwes, #.e., Waws. In 
the country parishes of Guernsey the belief prevails that sickness or 
-death will ensue if the flowers are brought into a house, and the 
same superstition is current in some parts of Essex. In ancient 
Greece the bridal wreath was composed of hawthorn flowers, and in 
later days in merrie England a garland of these blossoms always sur- 
‘mounted the Maypole. Burns, in one of his songs (the one begin- 
ning ‘ Oh, love will venture in’), has very poetically described an old 
hawthorn-bush clothed with tufts of shaggy lichen (Ramalina) :— 
‘The hawthorn I will pu’, wi’ its locks o’ siller grey, 
Where, like an aged man, it stands at break o’ day.’ 
Mespilus germanica, L. Wild Medlar. 
Denizen. First record: Babington, 1839. 
Rare. Small spinous shrubs occur in the valley below Le 
Becquet (111.); in the lane between St. George and Les Mourants 
(vill.); between Les Cornus and La Pompe (111.); in hedges along 
the Forest Road, in two or three places; in the valley below Les 
Issues (viI.); and on the cliffs near the Gouffre. Rather large trees 
“with few spines occur in Fermain Lane, at Ville au Roi, and near La 
Fosse (111.). I have classed the Medlaras a Denizen, but it may be 
really native. Babington says (#7. Sarn., p. 34) it is ‘truly wild’ in 
Jersey. 
The patois name of this tree is A#é/erv, the same as in Normandy, 
and the fruits are called A/é/es. In modern French the fruits are 
WVejyies and the tree Wéfiter. Ina wild state the Medlar is more or 
less spinous, but it loses its spines in cultivation. 
