596 
ICOSANDRIA. DIGYNIA. Cratbgus* 
DIGYNIA. 
CRATiE'GUS. Cal. five-cleft: Petals five: Berry beneath, 
(only dimpled, E.) one-celled, two-seeded. 
C. oxyacan'tha. (Thorny : leaves smooth, mostly three-cleft: seg¬ 
ments blunt, serrated: flowers corymbose. E.) 
Jacq. Austr. 292. 2 — (E. Bot. 2504. E.)—Matth. 163—Blackw. 149. 2— 
J. B. i. b. 49— FI. Dan. 634. 
(A small bushy tree, with smooth bark and hard wood. E.) All the va¬ 
rieties are found in our hedge rows ,* that with one pistil is the most com¬ 
mon ; that with three the most rare. ( Branches smooth, stiff, spinous. 
E.) Flowers white, but in clayey soils pinky red, (highly fragrant. E.) 
Berries mostly a coral red, but sometimes yellow, or white. Leaves 
glossy, the segments more or less blunt or acute, serrated upwards, but 
entire at the base; the middle segment three-cleft. Capsules mostly single- 
seeded, but sometimes there is a second cell, and the rudiment of a 
second seed. 
Yar. 2. Monogyna. Flowers with one pistil; leaves, segments more acute 
and expanding. 
Jacq. Austr. 292. 1—( FI. Dan. 1162. E.)— Sheldr. 21— Barr. 563— Clus. i. 
121— Lob. Obs. 614. 2— Park. 1025— Wale. — Blackw. 149. 1— Trag. 984 
— Ger. 1146. 1 —Dod. 751. 1 — Ger. Em. 1327. 1 . 
Var. 3. Trigyna. Flowers with three pistils. 
Hunt. — Evel. 398. ii.p. 92. Ed. 2d. 
Var. 4. ( Glastonburiensis. E.) Glastonbury Thorn. Appendages at the 
base of the leaves kidney-shaped, toothed, very large. 
In a lane beyond the church-yard on the opposite side of the street near 
a pit grows a very old tree. A woman ninety years of age never remem¬ 
bers it otherwise than as it now appears. Another tree of the same kind 
may be seen two or three miles from Glastonbury. It has been reported 
to have no thorns, but that I found to be a mistake; it has thorns, like 
other Hawthorns, but which likewise on aged trees are but few. There 
is also a full sized tree of this kind in the garden at Piper’s Inn. 
This variety blossoms twice a year; the winter blossoms, which 
are about the size of a sixpence, appear about Christmas, (it may 
ous as may be this primaveral ensign amidst leafless and dark associates, it attracts but 
little notice. Mr. Howitt has however described its peculiarities in verse :— 
<c The April air is shrewd and keen, 
No leaf has dared unfold, 
Yet thy white blossom’s radiant sheen, 
Spring’s banner, I behold. 
Though all beside be dead and drear. 
Undauntedly thy flowers appear.” 
Nor does even this ordinary and neglected little tree fail to yield its moral to the reflecting 
mind; the caduceous character of the petals, which fall in showers with the slightest 
agitation, offering a fit emblem of that premature decay, so often observable in 
“ Youth—the vision of a morn, 
That flies the coming day: 
It is the blossom of the Thorn 
Which rude winds sweep away.” Cunningham. E.) 
