214 Fruits of the Blackthorn. By James Hardy 



by a railway. At Lucker, Mr Eobson had 12 Apple Trees uprooted in his 

 orchard, most of which were heavily laden with fruit at the time. The 

 storm caught Earl Percy's foxhounds at Middleton, and it was with great 

 difficulty that the huntsmen and riders succeeded ia reaching places of safety. 

 Flocks of Wood Pigeons, Rooks, and small birds crouched by the sides of the 

 hedges or wherever a little shelter could be obtained, and might have been 

 knocked down by scores by any one with a stick. Not a bird was left on 

 the Fame Islands, and old men, who have lived all their lives in the vicinity, 

 declare that they never saw the Fame Islands totally covered with salt spray 

 till that day, and that during the storm not a siagle patch of black rock was 

 to be seen, the force of the wind carrying the spray far above the highest 

 pinnacles of the Islands. The birds crowded the shore in thousands seeking 

 shelter behind the sand banks and hedges ; the links and fields about Bam- 

 burgh and opposite Holy Island were covered with them, and many were no 

 doubt carried far inland. On the day after the storm a Guillemot ( Uria troile) 

 was found on Craggy Hall farm, about a mile west of Belford, which had no 

 doubt been carried there by the force of the wind. It was disabled in one 

 wing, but fought fiercely with the shepherd's dog for its life when discovered. 



JOHN AITOHISON, 



On soma extraordinary abnormal Fruits of the Blackthorn, 

 from the Banks of Heriot Water, above the Pease Mill, 

 and not far from the Pease Bridge, Berwickshire. By 

 James Hardy. 



[Plate IV.] 

 The specimens exhibited are from two very large clumps of 

 Blackthorn growing on dry slopes near the Heriot Water. The 

 bushes are old, and have reached their acme of growth, and pos- 

 sibly have been injured by recent rigorous winters, for they 

 have a scanty crop of foliage, and are still very black, while 

 other clumps near or surrounding them are f ull-foliaged, verdant 

 and healthy, but without these remarkable productions. They 

 were first noticed on May 16th, but have increased greatly in 

 size since, and from their pale green and russet tints are noticeable 

 at a considerable distance as something uncommon. They stand 

 (being abortive fruits) on the branches and twigs, in clusters of 

 from 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5, up to 10 or 12. Their shapes are oval, 

 elliptic-oval, oboval, or pyriform ; and they are flat or turgid ; 

 sometimes curved and amorphous. Some of them are not unlike 

 the kernels of almonds. Some are sessile, but most are stalked. 

 They are rugose, pale yellowish green on one side, tinted with 

 red on the rest of the surface, with a dull lustre ; those ap- 

 proaching to sloes are rounder, and shining, and of a deeper 



