246 ON FLOWERING TREES AND SHRUBS. 



which are good to eat. The original tree is said to be still stand- 

 ing, and, if this be true, it must now be nearly 300 years old. 



The other varieties of the hawthorn have probably originated 

 from seedlings observed in some hedge, and transplanted into a 

 nursery. In this manner the new beautiful bright scarlet hawthorn 

 was discovered, and also the double-flowered pink kind, which is 

 so ornamental in our shrubberies, both when its blossoms first ex- 

 pand, and are of a pure white, and when in about a fortnight they 

 begin to take a pinkish tinge, which deepens gradually as they 

 decay. Some of the varieties have bright yellow fruit, and in some 

 it is quite black ; in some the leaves are shaped like those of the 

 oak, and in others they are slender and deeply cut, like those of 

 the fern. One kind grows stiff and upright, like the Lombardy 

 poplar, and the branches of another kind are curled and twisted 

 together like gigantic ringlets. In some the leaves are variegated, 

 and in others smooth and shining : in short, it is scarcely possible 

 to set any limits to the varieties. The red-blossomed hawthorn 

 was one of the earliest discovered, it having been found in the time 

 of Ray ; and we may easily imagine what a valuable acquisition it 

 must have been to the slender stock of flowering shrubs posses- 

 sed by our ancestors. It is somewhat remarkable that all the red- 

 blossomed hawthorns have not been propagated from the same tree 

 but that several red-blossomed seedlings have been found at 

 different times, and at different places. Nearly all the other 

 varieties appear to have been discovered accidentally ; and their 

 number is accounted for by the fact of more plants of the hawthorn 

 being raised from seed than of any other tree, from the great 

 length of time that the hawthorn has been used for a hedge plant. 

 There is a double white blossomed kind very handsome. 



The cockspur thorn is a noble species, and it has some singular 

 varieties. One of these C. crus-galli salicifolia has a flat head, 

 spreading like a miniature cedar of Lebanon. A dwarf sub-vari- 

 ety of this, which does not grow more than five feet high, is well 

 adapted for planting in children's gardens. C. coccinea, or the 

 scarlet fruited-thorn, C. glandulosa, and C. punctata, are all well 

 worth growing in a shrubbery, or on a lawn ; and when seen to- 

 gether, they will be found very distinct. 



The principal large-fruited thorns are Crataegus Azarolus, C. 

 Aronia, C. orientalis,or odoratissima, andC. tanacetifolia. These 

 plants are all late in flowering, seldom expanding even their leaves 

 till the latter end of May or beginning of June, and being some- 



