HAWTHORN. 
67 
HAWTHORN. 
HOPE. 
The Hawthorn, or White Thorn, was among 
the Greeks a symbol of the conjugal union; its 
blossomed boughs were carried about at then- 
wedding festivities, and the new-married couple 
were even lighted to the bridal chamber with 
torches of its wood. 
Among the Turks a branch of the Hawthorn 
expresses the wish of a lover to receive a kiss 
from the object of his affection. 
|In England, where the hedges, principally 
formed of Hawthorn, give such beauty and di¬ 
versity to our landscapes, and where the air is 
perfumed during the season of flowering by the 
aromatic fragrance of its blossom, this shrub 
held a distinguished place among the May-day 
sports of our ancestors. From its flowering in 
that month, it received the name of May, by 
which it is still more frequently-called than by 
its proper appellation. 
Stow tells us that, on May-day, in the morn- 
