834 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART III. 



specimen of the (JIastonbury thorn, gathered in that garden on 

 Christmas-day, 188+, with fidly expanded flowers and ripe frnit on 

 the same branch. The plants of this variety in the Horticultural 

 Society's Garden, and at Messrs, Loddiges, flower sometimes in 

 December, and sometimes not till March or April. Seeds of this 

 variety are said to produce only the common hawthorn ; but we 

 have no doubt that, among a number of seedlings, there would, as 

 in similar cases, be found several plants having a tendency to the 

 same habits as the parent. With regard to the legend, there is 

 nothing miraculous in the circumstance of a staff, supposing it to 

 have been of hawthom, having, when stuck in the ground, taken 

 root, and become a tree ; as it is well known that the hawthorn 

 grows from stakes and truncheons ; one of the finest trees in Scot- 

 land, viz. that at Foimtains Hall, having been originated in that 

 manner by a man still in existence. The miracle of Joseph of 

 Arimathea is nothing compared with that of Mr. John Wallis, timber 

 surveyor of Chelsea, author of Dendrology (see Gnrd. Mag., vol. x. 

 p. 51.), who exhibited to the Horticultural and Linnaean Societies, 

 in 1834, a branch of hawthorn, which, he said, had hung for several 

 years in a hedge among other trees ; and, though without any root, 

 or even touching the earth, had produced, every year, leaves, flowers, 

 and fruit ! 

 5t C. O. 26 viomgynn, C. monogyna .Tacri., has flowers with only one 

 style, like C. sibirica, but docs not flower early, like that variety. It 

 has been observed by botanists, that there is a great uncertainty in 

 the number of styles in the genus Tratac^gus. According to D'Asso, 

 the common hawthorn is constantly monogynous in Spain. Allioni 

 states that this variety has the leaves more shining than those of the 

 species ; and that they arc extremely smooth, and deeply cut into 

 three or five lobes ; the peduncles are, also, smooth ; the segments of 

 the calyx reflexed ; and the fruit constantly contains only one seed. 

 Sir James Edward Smith says, " Repeated exiamination has satisfied 

 me, and many other English botanists, that flowers with a single 

 style are equally frequent in Jacquin's C Oxyacantha and in his C. 

 monogyna, though by no means universal in either." (Eng. Bot., ii. 

 p. 360.) According to the letter of the Linnaean system, and to 

 the generally received mode of forming generic and specific distinc- 

 tions on differences in parts of the flower alone, without reference to 

 other parts of the plant, C. O. monogyna ought to be made, not 

 only a distinct species, but a distinct genus, since it does not even 

 belong to the same order as the other varieties of the same species ; 

 or, at all events, it ought to be made a distinct species, and was so 

 made by Jacquin and others. The truth appears to be, that C. Oxy- 

 acantha, like most of the other species of Crataegus, varies in having 

 from 1 to 3 styles, though one or two are most frequent. It appears 

 that the Siberian variety is also monogynous; but, as it is remark- 

 able for its early flowering, we have kept it distinct under the name 

 of C. O. sibirica. See No. 3. 

 If C. 0. 27 apetala Lodd. Cat. — This remarkable variety has the flowers 



without petals, or very nearly so. 

 If C. O. 28 liicida. We apply this name to a very distinct and very 

 beautiful-leaved variety, which forms a standard in the southern 

 boundary hedge of the Horticultural Society's Garden, and which, 

 we trust, will soon be propagated in the nurseries. The leaves are 

 large, regularly cut, somewhat coriaceous in texture, and of a fine 

 shining green. The plant is of vigorous growth, 

 i C. O. 29 capildta Smith of Ayr differs from the species chiefly in being 

 of a somewhat more fastigiate habit, and in producing its flowers in 

 close heads, mostly at the extremities of its branches. 



