BRITISH WILD FLOWERS. 
149 
GENUS II. 
THE THORN. (Crat^gus, Lin.) 
Lin. Syst. ICOSANDRIA DI-PENTAGYNIA. 
Generic Character. —Segments of the calyx acute. Petals roundish. Styles 2 to 5. Fruit oval or round, concealing the upper ends 
of the carpella. Endocarpium bony. Trees with lohed leaves. Flowers cymose. (Lindley.) 
Description, &c. —It may appear strange to those who know the great number of American Thorns which 
are now common in our gardens, that the only British species is the common Hawthorn. The name of Cratozgus 
is derived from a Greek word signifying strength, in allusion to the hardness of the wood. The genus is placed 
in the same Linntean class and order as the Medlar. 
1. —THE COMMON HAWTHORN, OR WHITETHORN. (Crataegus oxyacantha, Lin.) 
Synonymes. —Mespilus oxyacantha, Smith ; May. 
Engravings. —Eng. Bot., t. 2504 ; 2nd ed., t. 693 ; and our fig. 
1, in PI. 35. 
Specific Character. —Leaves obovate, wedge-shaped, either entire, 
trifid, or cut, quite smooth and rather lucid. Flowers in corymbs, 
with from one to three styles. Calyx destitute of glands. ( Lindley .) 
Description, &c. —The common Hawthorn has always been a favourite with the poets, from Milton, who 
says,— 
“ Every shepherd tells his tale 
Under the hawthorn in the dale,” 
to the poets of modern days ; hut perhaps the most beautiful descriptions of the Hawthorn are those of 
Goldsmith, Shakspeare, and Burns. The first is the author of the well-known lines which occur in the 
“ Deserted Village,” beginning— 
“ The hawthorn bush, with seats beneath the shade, 
For talking age and whispering lovers made.” 
Shakspeare, in Henry VI., asks :— 
“ Gives not the hawthorn bush a sweeter shade 
To shepherds looking on their silly sheep, 
Than doth a rich embroider’d canopy 
To kings who fear their subjects’ treachery ?” 
And Burns says,— 
“ The hawthorn I will pu’, wi’ its locks o’ siller grey. 
Where, like an aged man, it stands at break o’ day. 
But the songster's nest within the bush, I winna tak’ away, 
And a’ to be a posie for my ain dear May.” 
The following beautiful lines by an old English poet 
is often given to the flowers of the Hawthorn :— 
“ Come, my Corinna, come ; and, coming, mark 
How each field turns a street, each street a park, 
Made green and trimmed with trees; see how 
Devotion gives each house a bough, 
Or branch ; each porch, each door, ere this, 
An ark, a tabernacle is, 
Made up of whitethorn neatly interwove, 
As if here were those cooler shades of love. 
Can such delights be in the street 
And open fields, and we not see’t ? 
(Herrick), allude to the popular name of May, which 
Come, we ’ll abroad, and let’s obey 
The proclamation made for May, 
And sin no more, as we have done, by staying ; 
But, my Corinna, come ; let’s go a Maying. 
There’s not a budding boy or girl, this day, 
But is got up and gone to bring in May : 
A deal of youth, ere this, is come 
Back, and with whitethorn laden home. 
Come, let us go while we are in our prime, 
And take the harmless folly of the time.” 
