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669. C. O. obtusàta.
crenate, o f the same colour on both surfaces. Styles 1—3. Fruit
containing more than 1 seed. Distinguished from the species by its
smaller, obovate, less cut, flat, and shining leaves. C. lùcida Smith
of Ayr, C, oxyacanthöides lùcida Sweet, is scarcely or not at all different
from this variety.
I' C. O. 24 quei'äßUa Booth (ß g . 721. in p. 401.) appears very distinct
in regard to foliage.
670. C. 0 . la c in ia ta .
¥ C. O. 25 laciniàta, 6'. laciniàta iodrf. Cat. (ß g . 716. in p. 400.; the
plate in Arb. Brit., 1st edit., vol. vi. ; and our fig. 670.), has finely cut
leaves ; the shoots are comparatively slender, the plant less robust,
and the fruit smaller, than in the sjiecies. I t is a very distinct and
elegant variety.
i C, O. 26 fficridifdia, C. '^terifòlia Lodd.Cat. ( / g . 717. in p. 400.),
resembles the preceding, but the leaves are longer in proportion to
their breadth, and more elegantly cut.
15 C. O. 27 oxyphylla Monckton. — Leaves much larger than tliose of the
species. Raised by General Monckton, at Somerford, in ? 1837.
Horticultural Society’s Garden.
H. Varieties differing in the Colour of the Leaves.
^ C. O. 28 foliis aúreis Lodd. Cat., C. lutéscens Booth, has leaves variegated
with yellow ; but they have generally a ragged and diseased
appearance, when fully expanded ; though, like those of most other
variegated deciduous plants, when first opening in spring, they are
strikingly showy and distinct.
15 C. O. 29 foliis argentéis Hort. has leaves variegated with white; but,
like the preceding variet)', it cannot be recommended as handsome at
any other period than when the leaves are first expanding.
15 C. O. 30 lucida.—We apply this name to a very distinct and very
beautiful-leaved variety, which forms a standai'd in the southern
boundary hedge of the Hort. Soc. Garden, and which, we trust, will
soon be propagated in the nurseries. The leaves are large, I'egularly
cut, somewhat coriaceous in texture, and of a fine shining green.
The plant is of vigorous growth.
The common hawthorn, in its wild state, is a shrub or small tree, with a
smooth bark and very hard wood. The rate of growth, when the plant is
young, and in a good soil and climate, is from 1 foot to 2 or 3 feet a year,
for the first three or four years ; afterwards its growth is slower, till the
shrub or tree has attained the height of 12 or 15ieet, when its shoots are
produced chiefly in a lateral direction, tending to increase the width of the
liead of the tree rather than its height. In a wiki state, it is commonly
found as a large dense bush ; but, pruned by accident or design to a single
stem, it forms one of the most beautiful and durable trees of the third rank
that can be planted: interesting and valuable for its sweet-scented flowers
in May, and for its fruit in autumn, wliich supplies food fbr some of the
smaller birds during part of the winter. In hedges, the hawthorn does not
flower and fruit very abundantly vvhen closely and frequently clipped ; but,
when the hedges are only cut in at the sides, so as to be kept within bounds,
and the summits of the piants are left free and untouched, they flower and
fruit as freely as when trained as separate trees. The plant lives for a century
or two, and there are examples of it between 40 ft. and 50 ft. in height,
with trunks upwards of 3 ft. in diameter at 1ft. from the ground.
The wood of the hawthorn is very hard, and difficult to work : its colour
is white, but with a yellowish tinge; its grain is fine, and it takes a beaiitit'ul
polish; but it is not much used in the arts, because it is seldom found of sufficient
size, and is, besides, apt to warp. It weighs, when green, 68 lb. 12 oz.
per cubic foot ; and, when dry, 57 lb. 5 oz. I t contracts, by drying, one
eighth of its bulk. I t is employed for the handles of hammers, the teetli
•of miil-wheels, for flails and mallets, and, when heated at the fire, fbr canes
and walking-sticks. The branches are used, in the country, for heating
ovens; a purpose for which they are very proper, as they give out much heat,
and possess the property of burning as readily when green, as in their drv
state. They are not less useful in the formation of dead hedges, for the
protection of seeds, or of newly planted live hedges or single trees ; and
they will last a considerable time without decaying ; especially vvhen they liave
been cut in autumn. The leaves are eaten by cattle, w'hich, nevertheless, pay