154 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



considerable size, and requires a strons^er soil than the 

 former. The flowers are in lara^e bunches, and are 

 succeeded by brown berries in the shape of haws, 

 but larg;er, which are often to be met with in the 

 London markets, in autumn. The timber is compact, 

 hard, toug-h, and white ; and answers very well for 

 coa:s of wheels, and other working parts of wooden 

 machinery. 



The Indian Hawthorn (RaphioUpis Indica) is a 

 native of the East Indies. It has been said, but the 

 statement is somewhat doubtful, that it is of larger 

 size than most of the other thorns; without spines; 

 and yielding a tough, red timber, fit for oars, hand- 

 spikes, and similar puqioses. 



White Thorn— Cratesgus o.rycantha. 



Common hawthorn, or TFhite Thorn (C. oxycan- 

 tha), is valuable both as a hedge shrub, and as a tree. 

 Few plants exceed it in beauty, when in bloom ; the 

 season of which is usually May, on which account 

 the name of May, or " May-blossom," is, in some 

 places, given to tlie tree. There is one variety how- 

 ever, the Glastonbury thorn (to which the monks of 

 the dark ages attached a popular legend), that 



