Читать книгу Wayside and Woodland Blossoms - Step Edward - Страница 23

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The Hawthorn, May, or Whitethorn, is too well known to require much description. Its more familiar appearance is as a hedge-forming shrub, when it is not allowed to have any natural form, but in the woodlands it becomes a round-headed tree, and when fully in flower looks like a monstrous snow-ball on a stalk. The tyro in botany can tell almost with a glance at its beautiful flowers that it is a member of the great order of Roses, and not distantly removed from the apple section of that order. The calyx-tube adheres to the ovary, and the five petals are inserted at the mouth of the calyx. The stamens are numerous; the styles one, two, or three, corresponding with the number of carpels. In the fruit these are covered by the red, fleshy coat in which the bony cells are enveloped, and which is valued as a food by birds in autumn and winter.

May or Hawthorn. Cratægus oxyacantha. —Rosaceæ.—

Buttercup. Ranunculus acris. —Ranunculaceæ.—

May and June are the usual months for flowering, but occasionally it is in blossom at the end of April. Though the characteristic odour from these flowers is sweet, now and then a tree will be found whose every flower gives out a distinctly fishy flavour that is far from pleasant; often, too, it may be found with pink or crimson blossoms. This is the only British species. The name is from the Greek, Kratos, strength, in allusion to the hardness of its wood.