264 SYLVA FLORIFERA. 



said to have stuck his staff into the ground, 

 which immediately shot forth and blossomed ; 

 and the vulgar for a long time believed that this 

 tree blossomed annually on Christmas day. 



The Glastonbury thorn is a variety of the 

 common white thorn, oxyacaniha^ which blos- 

 soms in the winter about January or Febru- 

 ary, and sometimes even as early as Christ- 

 mas. 



Dioscorides names this shrub 'Qu*iuw0ai 

 (oxyacantha), whilst Theophrastus writes it 

 Kparouyog, or Kpotrcuyuv, which is supposed 

 to be derived from xparof, which signifies 

 strength. It appears to be the spina and 

 spina appendix of Pliny. 



The fruit of this bush are called haws, from 

 whence the name of Hawthorn, which some 

 suppose to be from the German hagedorn, 

 the Danish hagetorn, the Swedish hagtorn, or 

 the Dutch hage. 



It is often called white thorn from the co- 

 lour of the flower-petals, and May-bush from 

 its blossoms appearing in that month, and 

 which were more noticed in old times before 

 the country was embellished with so many 

 early-blowing exotic shrubs ; for on the fes- 

 tival of Flora, on the first of May, our 

 ancestors never failed decorating with it the 

 May-pole, which was permanently fixed in or 



