50 FAMILIAR TREES 



which is perfectly wholesome though so tasteless 

 as generally to be left, even by the omnivorous 

 schoolboy, to the birds conceals the upper end of 

 the bony core. This boniness of the core is one of 

 the leading distinctions of the genus Cratcegus. 



There are some fifty species of Hawthorn, all con- 

 fined to the North Temperate zone ; but our English 

 forms yield to none in their varied beauty and interest. 

 They are seldom more than twenty feet in height ; but 

 aged specimens sometimes have boles two or three 

 feet in diameter, or still more frequently divide into 

 several stout ascending limbs, while the multitudin- 

 ous boughs and twigs spread outwards, forming a 

 close, round-headed bush, the favourite nesting resort 

 of many of our feathered friends. 



The bark is of a dull grey, and the boughs are 

 usually beset with thorns. The leaves are small, and 

 have a short but distinct stalk, whilst their out- 

 line is extremely variable ; and the snowy flowers are 

 grouped in flat clusters, each containing many blos- 

 soms, in the centre of each of which is the bunch 

 of stamens, whose delicate pink anthers soon become 

 brown as they burst and discharge their pollen. 



There are several wild varieties of the Hawthorn, 

 besides the many cultivated sorts in our gardens and 

 shrubberies. One, known as Cratcegus oxyaca n thoi'des 

 by botanists, has larger flowers and fruits, with a 

 smooth flower-stalk and calyx-tube, and with tAvo or 

 three "carpels," or divisions, to the core ; whilst another 

 C. mono'gyna, has deeply cut leaves, downy flower- 

 stalks, and smaller flowers and fruits, the flowers 

 appearing later, usually in June, and the fruit having, 



