THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



151 



or hcege means a fence, and "hagathorn" 

 is the fence made of thorns, or the 

 thorn which forms a fence or hedge. 

 The German hagedorn is the same 

 plant with a similar meaning, and 

 shows the early Teutonic custom of 

 appropriating and fencing off plots of 

 land. The surnames of Haig, Hague, 

 Haw, and numerous others have their 

 origin from the same source, and the 

 same root, with variations, is of fre- 

 quent occurrence as a place name. 

 The local or vulgar " haythorn " is an 

 easy transition, passing into the more 

 polished pronunciation of " hawthorn." 

 The term " haw," which is now applied 

 to the fruit of the hedge thorn, is pri- 

 marily seen to have meant the hedge 

 itself. In Durham the fruit of the 

 hawthorn is called " cat-haws," to dis- 

 tinguish it from the " dog-haws," the 

 fruit of the wild rose. Everyone knows 

 the old proverb, "Mony haws, mony 

 snaws," and it was supposed that an 

 abundant crop of " haws " was indica- 

 tive of a severe winter, and that it was 

 a manifestation of a beneficent provi- 

 dence in making a bountiful provision 

 for the sustenance of the feathered 

 songsters who charmed us with their 

 warblings amidst its fragrant summer 

 blossoms, but who took no thought for 

 the winter. 



" Ilk happing bird, wee, helpless thing, 

 That in the merry months o' spring, 

 Delighted me to hear thee sing, 



What comes o' thee ? 



Whare wilt thou cower thy chittering 

 wing, 



And close thy e'e ! " 

 'Twere a pity to dispel such an idyllic 

 illusion. The popular name of "May," 

 or "May-blossom," refers, of course, 

 to its period of blooming ; but in the 

 north at least it is only in favourable 

 seasons that its flowers are found in 

 May at all, and June has come before 

 it is in full blow. White in sunny 

 Selborne gives its earliest and latest 

 dates of flowering as April 20th and 

 June 10th. The term " quickset " is 

 often applied to a hedge of hawthorn, 

 and refers to the fact that it is com- 

 posed of living plants, to distinguish 

 it from a hedge, i.e., a fence formed of 

 hurdles or dead branches. The haw- 

 thorn is sometimes called "whitethorn" 

 to distinguish it from the "blackthorn" 

 or sloe (Prunus spinosa), a thorny 

 plant of similar habit often met with 

 in hedges. The distinction applies to 

 the bark of the young shoots and can- 

 not refer to the flowers, those of the 

 sloe being of the purest white, unre- 

 lieved by the carmine anthers of the 

 hawthorn. Its flowers appear upon 

 the naked branches before the leaves, 

 and, although small individually, are 

 rendered conspicuous by their profu- 

 sion and their vivid contrast with the 

 black thorny branches. It blossoms 

 three weeks or a month prior to the 

 hawthorn. "Albespyne" occurs in 

 old English writers, and is equivalent 



