. A description and history of vegetable substances, used in the arts, and in domestic economy . chalk, and limestone. The wood isvery firm and tough. Walking-sticks, wooden axles,handles of tools, and many other things are madeof it. It is close and takes a smooth polish ; but, likemost of the thorns, it requires to be well seasoned,otherwise it is apt to warp and split. The fFild Service fPyrus iorminalis) grows to a 154 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. considerable size, and requires a strons^er soil than theformer. The flowers are in lara^e bunches, and aresucceeded by brown berries in the shape of h
. A description and history of vegetable substances, used in the arts, and in domestic economy . chalk, and limestone. The wood isvery firm and tough. Walking-sticks, wooden axles,handles of tools, and many other things are madeof it. It is close and takes a smooth polish ; but, likemost of the thorns, it requires to be well seasoned,otherwise it is apt to warp and split. The fFild Service fPyrus iorminalis) grows to a 154 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. considerable size, and requires a strons^er soil than theformer. The flowers are in lara^e bunches, and aresucceeded by brown berries in the shape of haws,but larg;er, which are often to be met with in theLondon markets, in autumn. The timber is compact,hard, toug-h, and white ; and answers very well forcoa:s of wheels, and other working parts of woodenmachinery. The Indian Hawthorn (RaphioUpis Indica) is anative of the East Indies. It has been said, but thestatement is somewhat doubtful, that it is of largersize than most of the other thorns; without spines;and yielding a tough, red timber, fit for oars, hand-spikes, and similar White Thorn—Cratesgus Common hawthorn, or TFhite Thorn (C. oxycan-tha), is valuable both as a hedge shrub, and as a plants exceed it in beauty, when in bloom; theseason of which is usually May, on which accountthe name of May, or May-blossom, is, in someplaces, given to tlie tree. There is one variety how-ever, the Glastonbury thorn (to which the monks ofthe dark ages attached a popular legend), that WHITE-THORN. 155 flowers in January or February, and in favourableseasons and situations, as early as Christmas. Gilpinmentions that one of its prog-eny, which p^rew inthe 2:ardens at Bulstrode, had its flower-buds per-fectly formed so early as the 21st December. Inthe arboretum at the Royal Gardens, Kew, a similarthorn flowers at the same season. The belief thatcertain trees put forth their flowers on Christmas-dav, was not confined to the Glastonbury thorn. Inthe New F
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