HAWTHORN, Cratagus oxyaca2zthcz (see CuATIEous), a shrub or small tree, a native of Europe, Siberia, and the n. of Africa, common in Britain, and much planted both for hedges and for ornament. It varies in height from 6 or 8 to 20 or 25 feet. It has roundish obovate 3 to 5-lob.,1 deciduous leaves, and corymbs, generally of white, rose colored, or sometimes deep crimson flowers, succeeded by a small red fruit (haws) with yellow pulp, the central stony part bem;ag a very large proportion to the pulp. The fruit remains on the tree after the leaves have fallen, and affords winter-food to birds. There are many varieties of hawthorn, and, curiously enough, some have only one style, whilst some have several. The variety called GLASTONBURY Tnoux—because supposed to have originated at Glastonbury abbey—is remarkable for its early flowering, which often takes place in the middle of winter, whilst the common kind is not in flower till May or June. The winter flowers of the Glastonbury variety are, however, not generally followed by fruit, and a second flowering often takes place in the same year. The common hawthorn is often popularly called May, from the season of Its "flowering in England. It is also called whitethorn, in contradistinction to the sloe or blackthorn. The use of the hawthorn for hedges is almost universal in Britain. It is also sometimes employed as a stock on which to graft apples and other pomacer. It attains a great age, and in its more advanced stages, is a tree of slow growth, although, when young, it shoots up rapidly. The wood is very hard, close•gramed, and takes a
a fine polish, but is apt to warp. A fermented liquor, which is very intoxicating, is made from the fruit in many parts of France.
The hawthorn is particularly valuable as a hedge-plant, in consequence of its strong and plentiful spines, its long life, and its ready adaptation to very various soils. For this purpose, it is propagated by seed; the haws are laid in 5.. heap to rot, with a mixture of sand or fine mold, and in a year or sixteen months after, the seeds are sown in ground carefully prepared by digging- and manuring with well rotted manure. The seed-drills are about 16 in. apart. !he young plants are kept clear of weeds, and the earth about them occasionally stirred with the hoe. They often grow to the height of a foot or 2 ft, in the first season. They are commonly once transplanted before their final planting to form hedges. See HEDGE. Hawthorn hedges bear trimming very well, and the natural disposition of the plant to spread out above, can be counteracted, so as to make the hedge as it ought to be, widest at bottom; but unless the soil is very favorable, some of the plants are apt to die, and form gaps, which it is by no means easy to fill up with fresh plants.—Young hawthorn plants are called quicks or quicksets, because used to make living (quick) fences.