1^6 The 3^aturd Hijlory 
and Animals, white be efteemed by {ovat^ penurious colour, and 
a certain indication of a fcarcity of nouripment : Whence 'tis, 
fays my Lord Verulam \ that blue Violets and other Flowers^ if i 
they be ftarved, turn pale and white ; Birds and Horfes by age 
turnrr/'/V^ ; and the hoary hairs of men come by the fame reafon. 
And though among Fruits the white for the moft part argues but a 
mean conco^ion^ they being generally of a flafiy over-waterj taft, 
2.S Pear -plums ^ the white-harvefl plum^ white Bulleps-, isrc^, and 
divers forts of pears and apples of that colour. Yet in Berries the } 
cafe feems to be quite different, as we fee in Goo/berries, Grapes^ I 
Straw-berries^ Rafps^ whereof the white are by much the more 
delicate, and have the better flavor ; which if true, in the whole ' 
fiecies of berry-bearing Plants (as in probability it may) we have 
reafon to conclude that the berries of this Thorn are not acciden- 
tally white^ through defe^ or difeafe as in fome other Plants, but 
that they are an argument of its perfe9:ion, and that the Thorn 
it felf is of a quite different (pedes from all known before, and 
may juftly challenge the name of Oxyacanthu6 bacd^ albi^. Thcfe 
Berries *tis true, 1 faw not my felf, not being there in time of 
year for them, but being certified of the truth of it by the com- 
mon voice of the Paridi, and particularly by the Worftiipful 
Thomas Hoard Efq; who firft told me of it, and the Reverend 
Mr. Philips Arch-Deacon of Salop ^ and one of the three Vicars 
there ; (men of great ingenuity and undoubted veracity) I had j 
no reafon to queftionthe certainty of the thing. 
99. And hither I think may be referred the Glafienbury Tborn, 
in the Park and Gardens of the Right Honorable the Lord Ncr- 
reys^ that conftantly buds, and fomtimes bloffoms at or near 
Cbriffmajs : Whether this be a Plant originally of Oxford-fiire^ or 
brought hither from beyond Seas, or a graft of the old ftock of 
Glaflonbury^ is not eafie to determin. But thus much may be faid | 
in behalf of Oxford-Jhire^ that there is one of them here fo old, 
that it is now dying, and that if ever it were tranfplanted hither, 
it is far beyond the memory of men. 
40. As for the excellent and peculiar quality that it hath ^ fome 
take it as a miraculous remembrance of the Birth of CHRIST^ firft 
planted by Joseph Arimathea ; Others only efteem it as an ear- 
lier fort of 7horn peculiar to England : And others again are of | 
^ 'i>lat. Hi(l. Cent. I. Num. 93. g Here except the Tardegwht and white T>ama[in. 
opinion 
