C R A 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



c: R A 



381 



8. Crataegus Indica ; Indian Hawthorn. Unarmed: leaves 

 lanceolate, serrate ; corymbs scaly. This is a large thornless 

 tree ; the wood is heavy, reddish, and so tough that it is 

 well adapted for oars, and other purposes where elasticity is 

 required. Native of the East Indies and Cochin-china, 



!). Crataegus Oxycantha ; Common Hawthorn, or White 

 Thorn. Leaves ohtuse, trifid, serrate ; styles two, sometimes 

 three or four; seeds usually two, but sometimes one, three, 

 or four. The varieties are, Crataegus Vulgaris, or Common ; 

 Cratsgus Major, or Great-fruited; Cratoegus Praecox, or 

 Glastonbury ; Crataegus Plena, or Double-flowered : Cratoc- 

 gus Flava, or Yellow-berried ; Crataegus Alba, or white ber- 

 ried ; and Crntsrgus Incisa, or Fine-leaved. The common 

 Hawthorn and its varieties usually flower in May ; but the 

 Gl:istonbury variety usually flowers in January or February, 

 so that it may happen to be in flower on Christmas-day. The 

 great- fruited variety has an exceedingly large, oblong, smooth, 

 and bright scarlet-coloured fruit. The buds of the yellow 

 variety, are of a fine yellow colour, and are succeeded by 

 a golden-coloured fruit, which it continues to bear through- 

 out the winter, and was originally imported from Virginia. 

 The white variety, is but a paltry tree. The double-flowered 

 is one of the greatest ornaments of which our shrubberies can 

 boast, and may be kept down to any size ; its beautiful flowers 

 come out in large bunches in May, they are of a pure white, 

 and often appear entirely to cover the shrub ; they change 

 at length to a faint red, and are frequently succeeded by a 

 small imperfect fruit. Few trees can surpass the Hawthorn 

 in beauty, during the season when it is in bloom ; it is there- 

 lore well adapted for ornamental plantations, and particularly 

 proper for standing single in lawns or parks, where it will 

 grow to the height of twenty or even thirty feet, and some- 

 times measure from five to nine feet in the circumference of 

 its trunk. The wood is tough, and may be employed for 

 nxle-trees, and the handles of tools. The root of an old 

 thorn, gays Evelyn, is excellent both for boxes and combs ; 

 when planted singly, it rises with a stem big enough for the 

 use of the turner, and the wood is scarcely inferior to Box. 

 The common Hawthorn flowers and dried fruit are said, by 

 Hill, to be used in medicine as diuretics, and serviceable iu 

 all gravelly complaints ; but are not much esteemed. A 

 decoction of the bark affords a yellow die, which, with the 

 addition of copperas, is used for dying black. The berries 

 are the winter food of the thrush, and of many other birds ; 

 and hogs and deer are also very partial to them. The peasants 

 of many countries are known to eat them, and the Knmts- 

 chadales even make a wine from them. In addition to 'the 

 name of white thorn, the English call it May-bush, and quirk, 

 when used for hedges, for which purpose it surpasses all other 

 live fences ; (see Hedge and Quick.) The Germans call it hage- 

 dorn ; the Danes hagetorn ; and the Swedes hagtorn ; whence 

 the English also derive the name hawthorn, and apply the 

 contraction haws to the fruit ; in France it is known by the 

 appellation of aubepine, or epine blanche ; in Italy by the 

 term bianco spino ; and in Spain, espino bianco : all of which 



ignify white thorn. In order to raise the White Thorn, the 



most usual practice is, to sow the berries either in October 

 or November, or else very early in the spring, either broad- 

 cast or in drills, in beds of about four feet wide, with alleys 

 of eighteen inches in width between them, and covering the 

 berries an inch deep with fresh light mould. Thus, though 

 most of them should not come up until the second spring, 

 yet they will have the continual benefit of the sun, air, and 

 rain, all of which, it may be presumed, will make them come 

 up better, and shoot stronger, than when they lie buried in 

 a heap during more than a year. The following plan of Mr. 



VOL. i. 32. 



Boutcher's is subjoined, as containing some useful directions 

 on this subject. The haws should remain on the bushes till 

 the end of October, when they become blackish ; if you 

 do not sow them immediately as soon as they are gathered, 

 spread them on an airy floor for five or six weeks, till the 

 seeds are dry and firm, then plunge them into water, and 

 rub off all the pulp between your hands with the assistance 

 of a little sand : spread them again on the loft for three or 

 four days till quite dry, mix them with a fine loose sandy 

 mould, in quantity not less than the bulk of the seeds, and 

 lay them in a heap against a south wall, covering them over 

 three or four inches deep with soil, of the same quality as 

 that with which they are mixed. If you do not sow them 

 in the first, let them remain in this situation till the second 

 spring, as the seeds, when sown, will not appear in the first 

 year. That the berries may be as equally mixed with the 

 soil as possible, turn over the heaps once in two months, 

 blending the covering with the seeds, and at every turning 

 give them a fresh covering in the winter months. They must 

 be sown in the first dry weather in February or the begin- 

 ning of March : let them be separated from the loose soil in 

 which they were mixed with a wire sieve : choose good f'ri-sh 

 dry well-prepared land ; divide it into beds of three feet 

 and a half broad, with alleys of eighteen inches ; push over 

 a little of the surface of the beds into the alleys ; sow them 

 with great care, so that they may not rise in clusters, and 

 that the plants may in general be at least an inch asunder ; 

 clap them into the earth with the back of a spade, draw the 

 soil back from the alleys, and cover the seeds only half an 

 inch deep, In the succeeding spring, draw out all the largest 

 plants, wherever they rise too close together ; shorten their 

 roots, and lay them in lines a foot asunder, and four inches 

 distant in the rows, having cut off so much of their tops as 

 to leave them about two inches above ground ; and there let 

 them remain for two years. Those who are .not straitened 

 for ground may drop the seeds in drills that are eight inches 

 asunder, and double that distance between each pair of drills ; 

 they also may be drawn off, wherever too thickly set, in the 

 following spring, and the rest cut with a spade five or six 

 inches below ground, to remain another year. Thorns also 

 may be propagated to much advantage, and two years' time 

 be saved, by cuttings from their roots ; for this purpose, at 

 removing a nursery of these plants, cut off all unnecessary 

 roots that are straight and clean, and only of one or two 

 years' growth ; let them not exceed four or five inches, and 

 either early in October or February lay them in drills cut 

 out by the spade, with their tops a quarter of au inch below 

 the surface ; let these drills be a foot asunder, and lay the 

 roots three or four inches separate : in the next spring cut them 

 within three or four inches of the surface, for they will be in 

 general about eighteen inches high, and well rooted, at two 

 years old, In whatever way thorns are propagated, in October 

 they should be planted out in rows,at least eight inches asunder, 

 and six inches in the row, their roots having been shortened, 

 and their tops cut off so as to stand four or five inches above 

 ground : in this nursery they should remain no more than 

 two years, the ground being dug in spring and autumn, and 

 the plants cut in the first season, an inch or two above the for- 

 mer cutting : when again removed, they should be placed in 

 rows four feet asunder, and two feet distant in the row ; they 

 should also be cut to the height of a foot or fourteen inches ; 

 and about the end of June clipped straight in the sides, and 

 then in the tops. Having stood a year longer, they should 

 be again cut to the height of thirty inches, and clipped as 

 before. At Midsummer in the third season they may be cut 

 at about three feet and a half high, and may be planted in the 

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