THE BLACKTHORN. 107 



The Blackthorn is not nearly so valuable for the con- 

 struction of live hedges as the Hawthorn, owing, in the 

 first place, to its rambling habit ; and, secondly, to its 

 tendency to send up perpendicular branches, which are 

 bare of thorns towards the base. The wood rarely attains 

 a size which will allow it to be applied to any useful pur- 

 poses as timber ; but the straight stems are extensively 

 used as walking-sticks, which are much admired for their 

 bright colour and numerous knots. The thorny dead 

 branches are also recommended as being well adapted for 

 forming a fence round young trees planted in parks, the 

 sharp and rigid thorns effectually preventing the inroads of 

 cattle. The leaves are used to adulterate tea, for which 

 they form a substitute less liable to detection than almost 

 any other British plant, possessing a bitter, aromatic prin- 

 ciple, which, inasmuch as it is to be attributed to the pre- 

 sence of prussic acid, must render them very unwholesome. 

 The fruit is intensely austere and astringent, so much so 

 that a single drop of the juice placed on the tongue will 

 produce a roughness on the throat and palate which is 

 perceptible for a long time. When mellowed by frost, 

 however, it becomes red and pulpy, but at no period of 

 its existence claims to be considered a grateful fruit. The 

 juice of it, in its unripe state, is said to enter largely 

 into the composition of spurious port wine, and it may, it 

 is said, be fermented into a liquor resembling new port. 



So impudently and notoriously is this fraud carried on 

 in London, and so boldly is it avowed, that there are books 

 published called "Publicans' Guides," &c., in which 

 receipts are given for the manufacture of port wine from 

 cider, brandy, and sloe-juice, coloured with tincture of red 

 sandars or cudbear. 1 This villanous compound may be 



1 Red Sandars is a preparation of sandal-wood, used as a dye. Cud- 

 bear, so called after a Mr. Cuthbert, who first brought it into use, is 

 a lichen (Lecandra tartdrea), found growing in several parts of the 

 Continent, and in Great Britain, on granitic and volcanic rock, and 

 is also used as a dye. The chemical test called litmus is a prepara- 

 tion of this vegetable. Catechu is a substance procured by boiling 



