irf The Natural Hi jlory 



and Animals, white be efteemed by fome zpenuriout colour, and 

 a certain indication of a fcarcity of nourifljment : Whence 'tis, 

 fays my Lord Verulam f , that blue Violets and other Flowers, if 

 they be ftarved, turn pale and white ; Birds and Horfes by age 

 turn white ; and the hoary hairs of men come by the fame reafon. 

 And though among Fruits the white for the moft part argues but a 

 mean concoclion, they being generally of a flajby over-watery taft, 

 as Pear-plums , the white-harveH plum, white Bullets? iyc % . and 

 divers forts of pears and apples of that colour. Yet in Berries the 

 cafe feems to be quite different, as we fee in Goo/berries, Grapes, 

 Straw-berries, Pafps, whereof the white are by much the more 

 delicate, and have the better flavor ; which if true, in the whole 

 Jpecies of berry-bearing Plants (as in probability it may) we have 

 reafon to conclude that the berries of this Thorn are not acciden- 

 tally white, through defecl or difeafe as in fome other Plants, but 

 that they are an argument of its perfection, and that the Thorn 

 it felf is of a quite different (pedes from all known before, and 

 may juftly challenge the name of Oxyacanthm bauis albis. Thefe 

 Berries 'tis true, I faw not my felf, not being there in time of 

 year for them, but being certified of the truth of it by the com- 

 mon voice of the Parifb, and particularly by the WorlTiipful 

 Thomat Hoard Efq; who firft told me of it, and the Reverend 

 Mr. Philips Arch-Deacon of Salop, and one of the three Vicars 

 there ; (men of great ingenuity and undoubted veracity) I had 

 no reafon to queftionthe certainty of the thing. 



39. And hither I think may be referred the Glajlenbury Thorn, 

 in the Park and Gardens of the Right Honorable the Lord Ncr- 

 reys, that conftantly buds, and fomtimes bloffoms at or near 

 Chriflmajs : Whether this be a Plant originally of Oxjord-Jhire, or 

 brought hither from beyond Seas, or a graft of the old ftock of 

 Glaftonbury, is not eafie to determin. But thus much may be faid 

 in behalf of Oxford-Jbire, that there is one of them here fo old, 

 that it is now dying, and that if ever it were tranfplanted hither, 

 it is far beyond the memory of men. 



40. As for the excellent and peculiar quality that it hath, fome 

 take it as a miraculous remembrance of the Birth of CHRIST, firft 

 planted by ?ofepho{ Arimathea ; Others only efteem it as an ear- 

 lier fort of Thorn peculiar to England'. And others again are of 



f Sat. Hift. Cent. 1. K.im 93. Z Here except the TtrJegvin and white Pamafin. 



*s xj 



opinion 



