PYRUS. 79 



of " lees " that a boy has told that day is reckoned by the number 

 of black specks on the teeth, and the absence of specks vindicates his 

 innocence. — An abundant crop of haws betokens a severe winter : 



" Mony hawes 

 Mony snaws*." 



There is something very pleasing in this belief, which must have been 

 born when man's affections are most kindly stirred, during a Christmas 

 storm ; and the trusty faith that gave it birth keeps it yet alive, 

 despite many observations to the contrary. " It is an observation 

 amongst countrey people, that years of store of Hawes and Hips do 

 commonly portend cold winters ; and they ascribe it to God's pro- 

 vidence, that, as the Scripture saith, reacheth even to the falling of 

 a sparrow ; and much more is like to reach to the preservation of 

 birds in such season." — Bacon. 'Twere cruel to eradicate such a 

 belief. 



11. Pyrus malus. Don's Gard. Diet. ii. 623. — CrabsappU : 

 ^crogiS or ^frog^applc. — Frequent in old hedges and very orna- 

 mental. May-June. — ^The parent of all the numerous varieties of 

 Apples at present cultivated. 



207. Pyrus aucuparia. IHountainiajfl^ : 3&oton or (©uicfenv 



tr(e. — May- June. — The Roan-tree grows wild at the sides of all our 

 clear and brattling burns in hilly districts, where, however, it does not 

 attain the size it grows to in our sheltered deans. Here " it frequently 

 becomes a tree of the second or third magnitude, vrith a form gene- 

 rally devoid of that stiffness and round-topped outline it usually 

 assumes under cultivation, or as seen in dressed and garden grounds." 

 Selby, Brit. For. Trees, p. 77t- We have observed that it shows a 

 preference to the rocky sides of the little cascades or linns of our 

 burns, where it "hangs in calmness o'er the flood below," with an 

 airy gracefulness peculiar to itself ; and "Wordsworth appears to have 

 made the same observation : — 



" The mountain Ash 

 No eye can overlook, when mid a grove 

 Of yet unfaded trees she lifts her head 

 Decked with autumnal berries, that outshine 

 Spring's richest blossoms ; and ye may have marked 

 By a brook side or solitary tarn. 

 How she her station doth adorn ; — the pool 

 Glows at her feet, and all the gloomy rocks 

 Are brightened round herj." 



* Chalmers' Popular Rhymes, p. 37. 



t " On the high and rocky bank of the Blackadder, close to Blackadder 

 house, there formerly existed a very fine Rowan-tree, which was blown 

 down by a high wind about 11 or 12 years ago. It measured about 8 feet 

 in circumference, and was of a proportionate height. It was supposed, says 

 my informant, to have been the largest Rowan-tree in Scotland." G. Hen- 

 derson. May 2nd, 1836. ^ ..• * i,- i, 



+ Linneeus' description of this tree is very charactenstic of his happy 

 style and observation: "Arbor brevioris sevi, minus topiai-ia, vere et 

 autumno Iffita, media estate tristis."— Flor. Suec. p. 168. 



