CHAP. XLI1 



i?OSA v CE^K. CRAT/E GUS. 



833 



and also a drawing of it, taken in 183G, by Mr. Macnab, jun. From 

 Mr. Macnab's drawing, fig. 556. is reduced to a scale of an inch to 

 12 ft. The dimensions of the tree have been sent us by Mr. Barnet, 

 of the Experimental Garden, Inverleith ; from which we find that 

 the height of the tree is 33 ft., and the diameter of the head 36 ft. ; 

 the trunk divides into two limbs, at 15 in. from the ground, one of 

 which is 1 ft. 4 in. in diameter, and the other 1 ft. in diameter. The 

 tree, Mr. Barnet informs us, is healthy and vigorous ; though, if it 

 be true that Queen Mary sat under its shade, it must be nearly 300 

 years old. 



556 



¥ C. 0. 2bj)r<x: y cQx Hort., the early- flowering, or Glastonbury, Thorn, comes 

 into leaf in January or February, and sometimes even in autumn ; 

 so that occasionally, in mild seasons, it may be in flower on Christ- 

 mas-day. According to Withering, writing about fifty years ago, 

 this tree does not grow within the ruins of Glastonbury Abbey, but 

 stands in a lane beyond the churchyard, and appears to be a very 

 old tree. An old woman of 90 never remembered it otherwise than 

 as it now appears. This tree is probably now dead ; but one said 

 to be a descendant of the tree which, according to the Romish le- 

 gend, formed the staff of Joseph of Arimathea, is still existing within 

 the precincts of the ancient abbey of Glastonbury. It is not of great 

 age, and may probably have sprung from the root of the original tree, 

 or from a truncheon of it ; but it maintains the habit of flowering in 

 the winter, which the legend attributes to its supposed parent. A 

 correspondent (Mr. Callow) sent us, on December 1. 1833, a speci- 

 men, gathered on that day, from the tree at Glastonbury, in full 

 blossom, having on it, also, ripe fruit; observing that the tree blossoms 

 again in the month of May following, and that it is from these later 

 flowers that the fruit is produced. (Gard. Mag., vol. ix. p. 123.) 

 Mr. Baxter, curator of the Botanic Garden at Oxford, also sent us a 

 3 k 2 



