154 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



considerable size, and requires a stronger soil than the 

 former. The flowers are in large bunches, and are 

 succeeded by brown berries in the shape of haws, 

 but larger, which are often to be met with in the 

 London markets, in autumn. The timber is compact, 

 hard, tough, and white; and answers very well for 

 cogs of wheels, and other working parts of wooden 

 machinery. 



The Indian Hawthorn (Raphiolipis 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 purposes. 



Whitt Thorn Cratagus oxycantha. 



Common hawthorn, or White 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 the tree. There is one variety how- 

 ever, the Glastonbury thorn (to which the monks of 

 the dark ages attached a popular legend), that 



