Rose (Rosacece) 105 



found the little shrub growing among the huckleberry 

 bushes, and was afraid of mistaking its berries for the 

 safe huckleberries. Yet I never heard of any case of 

 poisoning from them. I imagine that the boys were right 

 in considering the berry not desirable for food, but I 

 doubt their estimate of its poisonous qualities. 



(7) Genus CRAT^GUS. (Thorn. Haw.) 



From a Greek word meaning " strength," because of the firmness of the wood. 



Flowers, white, rarely rose color, in clusters. Petals, five, 

 rounded. Stamens, many. Calyx-tube, urn-shaped. 

 Styles, one to five. Seed-cases, one to five. 



Leaves, simple, toothed, often with deep clefts, almost 

 forming small lobes. Stems, armed with thorns. 



Fruit, fleshy, with one to five stones, crowned by the 

 persistent sepals. A drupe. 



Sir John Mandeville visited Palestine in the I4th 

 century. There he saw a crown which was said to be the 

 Saviour's " crown of thorns." He commentsconcerning our 

 Lord and the crown : " In that nyghte that He was taken, 

 He was yled into a gardyn ; and there He was first 

 examyned righte scharply ; and there the Jewes scorned 

 Hym, and maden Hym a crowne of the braunches of Albes- 

 pyne, that is White Thorn, that grew in the same gardyn, . x 

 and setten yt .on His head, so faste and so sore, that the 

 blood ran down be many places of Hys visage, and of 

 Hys necke, and of Hys schulders. And therefore hath 

 the White Thorn many vertues ; for he that berethe a 

 braunche on him thereof, no thondre, ne no maner of 

 tempest may dere him ; ne in the hows that yt is inne 

 may non evylle gost entre." 



