THE YOUNG 



NATUEALIST. 



147 



the boughs till the summer blossoms 

 appear. The hawthorn being a very 

 primitive type of flower very readily 

 produces so-called double blossoms, 

 which, being highly ornamental, are 

 often seen in cultivation, as also a 

 beautiful progressive variation in color 

 which has become persistent in the 

 lovely pink and scarlet thorn, but even 

 in it. atavism, or the tendency to revert 

 to the original colour, is not uncom- 

 mon. In Auckland Park a scarlet 

 bush produces annually a branch of 

 normal white hue. 



Although there is only one indig- 

 enous species of hawthorn, its vari- 

 ability is sufficient to furnish four 

 varieties, of which, at least, two are 

 sufficiently distinct to be recognised 

 and named by most authorities. Of 

 these C, oxyacantlwides, apart from 

 the less divided leaves and the hairless 

 calyx, has the important structural 

 difference of having two or three styles 

 and carpels in the ovary, by which it 

 can be easily identified ; it is a rather 

 uncommon form. The next C. mono- 

 gyna, is far more abundant and is the 

 prevalent type, as its name imports it 

 is distinguished by its solitary style, 

 also by the longer, narrower, and re- 

 flexed segments of its downy calyx, 

 and the leaves deeply lobed into three, 

 five, or even more divisions. Of this 

 there is a subordinate variety C t laci- 

 natus } in which the leaves are so deeply 

 divided into numerous segments as to 



be quite pinnate in their character, by 

 which it is readily recognised as it has 

 quite a distinct appearance. In this 

 district it is fairly frequent. Of the 

 other variety, C. kyrtostyla, I have no 

 personal knowledge, and the book des- 

 criptions seem very vague. As a 

 hedgerow plant the hawthorn is un- 

 rivalled, its hardiness and rapidity of 

 growth makes it invaluable for a 

 quickly formed fence, whilst its pun- 

 gent thorns render it invulnerable as 

 a barrier and cause it to be rejected by 

 browsing animals. These thorns are 

 abortive branches which growing a 

 little way abruptly terminate in a sharp 

 hard point, they disappear from the 

 older stems and are quite different from 

 the superficial prickles of the rose or 

 bramble. It not only bears clipping 

 and pruning well, but thrives the bet- 

 ter for it. A trim well-kept hedge 

 seems always indicative of comfort and 

 contentment, and few things have a 

 more enlivening effect in spring than 

 its first manifestations of returning 

 vernal activity, in its rosy-hued swell- 

 ing, though yet unopened leaf-buds, 

 and the delicate green of its newly un- 

 folded glossy leaves. In rural lanes 

 and neglected farms, however, it is 

 more frequently seen towering to a 

 height of ten or fifteen feet, with sturdy 

 stems six or eight inches in diameter, 

 bare and naked below. In a reforming 

 fit it is ruthlessly cut down to within 

 a foot or two of the ground, when 



