HAWTHORN. 
59 
HAWTHORN. 
HOPE. 
The Hawthorn, or White Thorn, was among 
the Greeks a symbol of the conjugal union ; its 
blossomed boughs were carried about at their 
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 diver¬ 
sity to our landscapes, and where the air is per¬ 
fumed 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- 
