240 
HAWTHORN. 
it has been celebrated by many of our best 
poets, but it also harbours the little birds 
which cheer us with their joyous music. The 
thrush, and many others, feed in winter on its 
berries, the bright scarlet haws. 
“ The Glastonbury variety, commonly 
called the Glastonbury Thorn, usually flowers 
in January or February ; but it is sometimes 
in blossom on Christmas-day. In many 
countries the peasants eat the berries of the 
Hawthorn; and the Kamschatdales make a 
wine from them. 
“ The scent of the May-blossom is prover¬ 
bially sweet. How much is said in praise 
both of its beauties and sweetness in the 
following couplet: 
A bush of May-flowers with the bees about 
them ; 
Ah, sure no tasteful nook would be without 
them !” 
Keats. 
The Hawthorn is of the class Icosandria, 
and order Digynia. 
