44, 
THE BLACKTHORN. 
Prunus spinosa. 
Prats 5, Fie. 11. 
we yex ARLY though it is in blossoming, 
\\p)\" the white, five-petalled flowers of 
the Black or Sloe Thorn are abso- 
lutely devoid of fragrance. They 
appear usually before the leaves, 
and present a strange contrast to 
the dark-coloured bark of the Tree on 
which they are borne. They grow not in 
clusters but singly— peeping out from the 
thorny angles of the twigs. The leaves of the 
Sloe appear in little clusters, and when full-grown 
they are small and of a dull and dark green 
colour, having mid-veins giving off wavy branches 
to the finely and beautifully serrated leaf-margin. 
