The YOUHG HATBBAMST 



A Monthly Magazine of Natural History. 



Part 55. 



JUNE, 1884. 



Yol. 5. 



THE HAWTHORN 



(Gratcegus oxyacantha) . 



By J. P. Soutter, Bishop Auckland. 



CC r J" 1 HE small birds rejoice in the green 

 leaves returning, 

 The murmuring streamlet winds through 

 the vale ; 



The hawthorn trees blow in the dew of the 

 morning, 



And wild scatter'd cowslips bedeck the 

 green dale." 



To the wan and pale-faced denizen 

 of our smoke-begrimed cities there is 

 no single plant so associated with true 

 country life, and the sight and smell 

 of which awakens within his toil-worn 

 breast so sweet memories of some stroll 

 through a green lane bordered with its 

 fragrant blossoms, in one of his all too 

 brief and infrequent holidays ; or it 

 revives perchance some pleasing remi- 

 nisences of former joys when as a lover 

 he— 



" Breathed forth the tender tale 

 Beneath the milk-white thorn that scents 

 the evening gale." 



No picture of English rural life and 

 scenery can be complete without the 

 hawthorn. In Goldsmith's exquisite 

 description of the " Deserted Village " 

 there is no truer touch than — 



"The hawthorn bush, with seats beneath 

 the shade 



For talking age and whispering lovers made." 



Although we are most familiar with 

 the hawthorn as a hedgerow shrub, yet 

 when grown under favourable con- 

 ditions it attains the dimensions of 

 a respectable tree. A height of fifty 

 feet with a girth of nine feet may be 

 taken as its extreme limit, but such 

 specimens are exceedingly rare. Trees 

 of from twenty to thirty feet in height 

 with a trunk three or four feet in cir- 

 cumference are far more common. 



As an ornamental tree, the hawthorn 

 is not excelled by any other indigenous 

 tree. Of course, it cannot vie with 

 the majestic splendour of a colossal 

 horse-chestnut when in full blossom ; 

 but apart from the fact that it is not a 

 native, it is so comparatively scarce as 

 to be regarded more as an appanage 

 of wealth and an adornment of parks 

 and preserves. In richness of colour 

 and profusion of blossom it is rivalled 

 by the wild apple (Pyrus mains) ', for 

 there is no prettier sight than a well- 

 grown crab-apple-tree, either when 

 clothed with the rosy-tipped balls of 

 the unopened flower-buds, or when 



