HAWTHORN. 185 



Cowper, who loved his garden, and found new pleasure 

 in transplanting his flowers into his poems, describes the 

 Guelder-rose as 



" tall, 



And throwing up into the darkest gloom 

 Of neighbouring cypress, or more sable yew, 

 Her silver globes, light as the foamy surf 

 That the wind severs from the broken wave." 



Southey speaks of it by its more rustic name of Snow- 

 ball : 



" I like a shrubbery too, it looks so fresh, 

 And then there 's some variety about it. 

 In spring the lilac, and the snowball flower, 

 And the laburnum, with its golden strings 

 Waving in the wind : and when the autumn comes, 

 The bright red berries of the mountain-ash, 

 With pines enough in winter to look green, 

 And show that something lives." 



HAWTHOKN. 



CRAT^EGUS OXYACANTHA. 



ROSACES. ICOSANDRIA DIGYNIA. 



French, Taubepine ; Te'pme-blanche la noble epine ; le senellier. 

 Italian, bianco-spino ; amperlo ; marruca bianca ; bagaia. English, 

 Hawthorn, from 4he Anglo-Saxon, hsgthorn ; Whitethorn ; Quick ; 

 May-bush. 



FEW trees exceed the Common Hawthorn in beauty, 

 during the season of its bloom. Its blossoms have been 

 justly compared to those of the myrtle : they are admirable 

 also for their abundance, and for their exquisite fragrance. 

 This shrub usually flowers in May ; and being the hand- 

 somest then, or perhaps at any time, wild in our fields, has 

 obtained the name of May, or May-bush. The country- 

 people deck their houses and churches with the blossoms on 

 May-day, as they do with holly at Christmas. 



