1' 1 1 !■: 



Caijadiai] fiorticulturist. 



Nn. 11. 



t , 



#M-'",, 



THE THORN TREE. 



Ml 



ARK the faire blooming of tlu' 



Hawthorne tree. 

 Which, finely cloathed in a mbe 

 >f white, 

 Fills full the wanton eye 



with May'.s delight. 

 — Chaltku : Cmtrt of Love. 



Maxy of our country roadsides 

 are ornamented in the month of 

 October with a very beautiful species 

 of native Hawthorn, viz. : — Crataegus 

 Coccinea, or Scarlet Fruited Thorn. Its 

 loads of beautiful bright red ovoid haws 

 or fruit, relieved by the dense mass of 

 dark green foliage, certainly present a 

 most attractive appearance. What 

 could be more suitable as a decorative 

 shrub for the lawn at this season of the 

 year? 



We have also in Canada the C. 

 tomentosa, or Black Thorn, and the C. 

 crusgalli, or Cockspur Tliorn : and all 

 are full of beauty, with their mass of 



white flowers in the month of May. 

 The English Hawthorn, referred to in 

 Chaucer's lines above, and known to 

 botanists as C. oxycantha, is well 

 known as the favorite liedge plant in 

 England. It is so associated with the 

 floral games of May that it is known 

 to some as the Maybush. and reminds 

 us of the merry May-pole, with its top 

 decked with garlands of the Bowers 

 from this tree, beneath which the 

 happy party crowned their Queen of 

 May. The Poet-Laureate speaks of this 

 custom in his popular poem, the May 

 Queen, thus : — 



r<ast May we made a crown of floweit* : we had 



a merry day ; 

 r.eneath the Hawthorn on the green they made 



n»e Colleen of May ; 

 .Vnd we danced about tlie May-pole, and in the 



hazel cojise. 

 Till Charles Wain came out above the tall whit*- 



chimney-tops. 



