Few trees have received a greater tribute of praise from poets and
poetical writers than the Hawthorn, which in England especially is
consecrated to the pastoral muse and to all lovers of rural life. The
Hawthorn is also a tree of classical celebrity. Its flowers and branches
were used by the ancient Greeks at wedding festivities, and laid upon
the altar of Hymen in the floral games of May, with which from the
earliest times it has been associated. In England it is almost as
celebrated as the rose, and constitutes the most admired hedge plant of
that country. It is, indeed, the beauty of this shrub that forms the
chief attraction of the English hedge-rows, which are not generally
clipped, but allowed to run up and bear flowers. These are the principal
beauties of the plant; for its leaves are neither luxuriant nor flowing.
The Hawthorn in this country is not associated with hedge-rows, which
with us are only matters of pride and fancy, not of necessity, and their
formal clipping causes them to resemble nature only as a wooden post
resembles a tree. Our admiration of the Hawthorn, therefore, comes from
a pleasant tradition derived from England, through the literature of
that country, where it is known by the name of May-bush, from its
connection with the floral festivities of May. The May-pole of the south
of England is always garlanded with its flowers, as crosses are with
holly at Christmas. The Hawthorn is well known in this country, though
unassociated with any of our rural customs. Many of its species are
indigenous in America, and surpass those of Europe in the beauty of
their flowers and fruit. They are considered the most ornamental of the
small trees in English gardens.
The flowers of the Hawthorn are mostly white, varying in different
species through all the shades of pink, from a delicate blush-color to a
pale crimson. The fruit varies from yellow to scarlet. The leaves are
slightly cleft, like those of the oak and the holly. The flowers are
produced in great abundance, and emit an agreeable odor, which is
supposed by the peasants of Europe to be an antidote to poison.