C 2504 ]
MESPILUS Oxyacantha.
Common Hawthorn, Whitethorn, or May.
ICOSANDRIA Pentagynia.
G en. Char. Cal, in 5 segments. Petals 5. Druba
inferior. Nuts 2 to 5, with two kernels each.
»pec. Char/ Thorny. Leaves obtuse, deeply three-
cleft, serrated, smooth. Styles one or two.
» y n . Mespilus Oxyacantha. Sm. FI. Brit. 5<>q
Hull. ed. V.X 45. Relh. 190.
M - ai)!, cfoIl° ^»vestriS spinosa, sive Oxyacantha.
Ran Syn. 453. '
Crataegus Oxyacantha. Linn. Sp. Pi. 683. Buds
214. With. 45.9. FI. Dan. t. 634.
C. monogyna. Jacq. Austr. t. 292. Sibth. 15&
Abbot. 108.
. HIS beautiful and useful shrub, whose abundance and lux*
unance with us may well counterbalance the myrtle of more
genial climates, forms the natural thickets of most parts of England.
It adorns our parks, and makes our best fences. Its
ruby-tipped buds are the first sign of vegetation in spring: its
sweet blossoms the decoration and the pledge of approaching
summer; its fruit the chief wild treasure of autumn. The hard
and tough wood is useful for many different purposes, but of
s ow growth, and generally of no great size. The branches bear
clipping to any extent, and the whole bush, if cut nearly to the
ground, is speedily restored.
The branches are fiirnished with rigid spines. The leaves are
alternate stalked, deciduous, of a dark shining green, smooth, in
three or five deep serrated segments. Stipulas lunate, varying
much m size Flowers corymbose, terminal, with smooth stalks.
Calyx reflexed. Petals concave, usually white; of a beautiful
red on a strong or deep soil. Anthers pink, changing to black,
styles one or two in different flowers of the same bunch. Fruit
red, rarely yellow, mealy, insipid, with one or two hard nuts,
sometimes there are three styles and as many nuts.— The leaves
vary in shape, but we have in vain laboured to ascertain two
species of Hawthorn in Britain; nor do the Oxyacantha and mo-
nogyna of Jacquin appear to us permanently distinct.