to itself the name of the lovers'-month. Not The Wild 

 that the hawthorn has unchallenged use of Apple. 

 May as a name. In Devon the white lilac is 

 often called the May, and elsewhere too the 

 'laylock' is spoken of as May-bloom. The 

 laurustinus, again, is thus named in some 

 parts of Somerset, and I have heard lilies of- 

 the-valley called May-blossoms. In Scotland 

 I have often heard the hawthorn -in -bloom 

 called Queen of the May and even Queen of 

 the Meadow, though neither name properly 

 belongs to it, and the latter is the inalienable 

 title of the meadowsweet. But of all wild- 

 blossom nothing surpasses in mass that of the 

 hawthorn. It, truly, is the foam of the groves 

 and hollows. From the south to the north 

 it flows in a foaming tide. ' Bride of the 

 world ' I have heard it called in a Gaelic song, 

 and long ago an ancient Celtic bard spoke of 

 it lovingly . . . 'white is every green thorn, 

 and honey sweet.' 



But it is of the Apple I want to write just 

 now, she whose coronal of blossom is surely 

 loveliest of all fruitbearers : Bride of the 

 Wind we may say — 'Persephone herself as 

 a modern Italian poet calls her. 



In the Highlands to-day the Apple ( Ubhal), 

 or the Wild -Apple or Crab -Apple (Ubhal- 

 fiadhaick), is still common in woods and by 



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