258 THE MAGAZINE OF HORTICULTURE. 



May is the common and well known name of the English 

 hawthorn in Great Britain, and its flowers have been identi- 

 fied with the floral games of May, from time immemorial. 

 The Greeks and Romans gathered the flowers in honor of 

 Flora, to whom the plant was dedicated, and whose festival 

 began on May Da5^ Formerly, in decking the May pole with 

 flowers, a bunch of the hawthorn was always put upon the 

 top. This, however, was in the olden time, previous to the 

 alteration in the style, when May Day occurred eleven days 

 later than at present. It is now so rarely in bloom on May 

 Day that the practice is abolished, except in the southern part of 

 England. Various legends are connected with particular trees, 

 — one of the most remarkable of which is that of the Glaston- 

 bury thorn ; this is said to have sprung from a stafl" stuck into 

 the ground by Joseph of Arimathea, upon his visit to England 

 after the death of Christ, which immediately shot forth leaves 

 and blossoms. It was upon Christmas day ; and the legend 

 adds that the thorn is still in existence and annually blossoms 

 on that day. 



Few flowers have been more celebrated by the Poets than 

 the hawthorn. Chaucer says : 



'' Marke the faire blooming of the hauthorne tree 

 Who finely cloathed in robe of white 

 Fills full the wanton eye with May's Delight." 



But the hawthorn of the poets, around which so many asso- 

 ciations are clustered, is not the hawthorn of our woods and 

 fields, growing in pastures and hedgerows, on hillsides and 

 mountain cliff's, from Maine to Florida. These, though many 

 in number and various in growth and habit, enlivening the 

 season far into May and June by their snowy blossoms and 

 tender green foliage, and adding variety to the brilliancy of 

 our autumn scenery by the abundance of their fruit, and more 

 beautiful than the May, are wanting in one thing — the de- 

 lightful order of its blossoms, which, at the early season of 

 .their opening, is reviving to the spirits. Chaucer again says : 



" There sawe I growing eke the freshe hauthorne 

 In white motley, that so sote doeth ysmell." 

 Yet many of our native species, sisters of the May, can, with 



