106 FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS. 



hemisphere. The plant is about equally well known 

 under three names hawthorn, whitethorn, or May. It 

 owes its first name to the crimson fruit that loads it 

 in the autumn; these berries are popularly known as 

 "haws" or "haigs." The first name is in use in the 

 south, the second in the north, of England. In the 

 Anglo-Saxon chronicles the tree is the hagadorn, a name 

 that closely resembles the modern German name for it, the 

 hagedorn. The fruit is in Anglo-Saxon called haga; it is 

 therefore the characteristic feature that has influenced the 

 name of the shrub, while we indirectly learn another 

 curious little fact the great value of the tree even in those 

 early times as a hedge-former from the A.-S. word kcege, a 

 hedge, the word being probably derived from the plant 

 that had proved most valuable as a fencing, though it may 

 either be that the hedge derives its name, as suggested, 

 from the great use of this plant, or possibly that the plant 

 itself, on the other hand, is called hedge-thorn, from its 

 utility in hedge-making. Whichever view be taken, 

 it does not affect the interesting fact of its use in the 

 hedgerow at this early period. The name whitethorn 

 is applied to the shrub to distinguish it from the 

 Prunus spinosa, or blackthorn, though it might well be 

 allowed to stand on its own merits as a very fairly expres- 

 sive name for a thorny bush that during its flowering 

 season is one mass of snowy- white blossoms. The third 

 name is given to it from the time of the year when it is 

 in full flower it is one of the most typical and beautiful 

 flowers of the month of May. In the names of several 

 plants a reference to the time of their flowering may be 

 detected. We find it, for instance, in the Christmas-rose, 

 while by many old writers the daffodil is called the Lent- 



