again when lightly trodden under foot. In some English counties 

 the flower is familiarly called Witches' Thimble. In France, a 

 little white Hare-bell is common in the meadows, and from its 

 modest and chaste appearance is called the Nun of the Fields. 

 (See Blue-bell and Campanula). 



Hassocks. — See Grass. 



HAWKWEED.— The Hawk-weed or Hawk-bit {Hieracium) 

 was a name originally applied to several plants of the Dandelion 

 and Mouse-ear families, and in days when falconry was pracflised, 

 these plants derived some importance from the notion entertained 

 by the ancients that with them hawks were in the habit of clearing 

 their eyesight — a notion endorsed by the later herbalists, for we 

 find Gerarde writing that hawks are reported to clear their sight 

 by conveying the juice hereof into their eyes. The old tradition 

 that the hawk feed upon Hawkweed and led her young ones early 

 to eat the plant, that by its juices they might gain acuteness of 

 vision, was believed some centuries ago not only in England but 

 throughout Europe. The Greeks considered the Hawkweed a holy 

 plant, inasmuch as it was dedicated to the use of a bird they held 

 sacred. One of these plants was, like the Scabious, called the 

 Devil's-bit, on account of its root presenting the appearance of 

 having been bitten off short ; another {Hieraciuvi aurantiactan) bore 

 the familiar name of Grim the Collier, given it from the black hairs 

 which cover its stem and involucre. Hawkweeds were considered 

 good for strengthenmg the eyesight, and were deemed efficacious 



against the bites of serpents and scorpions. The plant was 



adjudged to be under the rule of Saturn. 



HAWTHORN. — The Hawthorn, according to ancient myths, 

 originally sprang from the lightning: it has been revered as a sacred 

 tree from the earliest times, and was accounted by the Greeks a 

 tree of good augury and a sj'mbol of conjugal union. After the 

 rape of the Sabines, upon which occasion the shepherds carried 

 Hawthorn-boughs, it was considered propitious ; its blossoming 

 branches were borne by those assisting at wedding festivities, and 

 the newly-married couple were lighted to the bridal chamber with 

 torches of the wood. At the present day, the Greeks garland their 

 brides with wreaths of Hawthorn, and deck the nuptial altar with 

 its blossoms, whilst on May-day they suspend boughs of the flower- 

 ing shrub over their portals. The ancient Germans composed their 

 funeral-piles of Hawthorn wood, and consecrated it with the mallet, 

 the symbol of the god Thor. They believed that in the sacred 

 flame which shot upwards from the Thorn, the souls of the deceased 



were carried to heaven. In France, the Hawthorn is called 



VEpitie noble, from the belief that it furnished the Crown of Thorns 

 worn by our Lord before the Crucifixion. Sir John Maundevile 

 has given the original tradition, which is as follows : — " Then was 

 our Lord led into a garden .... and the Jews scourged 



