the heart. Gerard says "Women troubled with the mother
(womb) are much eased by baths made of the leaves, and flowers of
this, and the kindred Ragworts."

A decoction of Groundsel serves as a famous application for healing
chapped hands. In Cornwall if the herb is to be used as an emetic
they strip it upwards, if for a purgative downwards. "Lay by your
learned receipts," writes Culpeper, "this herb alone shall do the deed
for you in all hot diseases, first safely, second speedily."

HAWTHORN (Whitethorn).

The Hawthorn, or Whitethorn, is so welcome year by year as a
harbinger of Summer, by showing its wealth of sweet-scented,
milk-white blossoms, in our English hedgerows, that everyone rejoices
when the Mayflower comes into bloom. Its brilliant haws, or fruit,
later on are a botanical advance on the blackberry and wild
raspberry, which belong to the same natural order. It has promoted
itself to the possession of a single carpel or seed-vessel to each
blossom, producing a [246] separate fruit, this being a stony apple in
miniature.

But the word "haw" is misapplied, because it really means a
"hedge," and not a fruit; whilst "hips," which are popularly
connected with "haws," are the fruit-capsules of the wild Dog-rose.
Haws, when dried, make an infusion which will act on the kidneys;
they are astringent, and serve, as well as the flowers, in decoction,
to cure a sore throat.

The Hawthorn bush was chosen by Henry the Seventh for his
device, because a small crown from the helmet of Richard the Third
was discovered hanging thereon. Hence arose the legend "Cleve to
thy crown though it hangs on a bush." In some districts it is called
Hazels, Gazels, and Halves; and in many country places the
villagers believe that the blossom of the Hawthorn still bears the
smell of the great plague of London. It was formerly thought to be
scathless--a tree too sacred to be touched.

Botanically, the Hawthorn is called _Cratoegus oxyacantha_, these
names signifying _kratos_, strength or hardness (of the wood); and
_oxus_, sharp--_akantha_, a thorn. It is the German _Hage-dorn_ or
Hedge thorn, showing that from a very early period in the history of
the Germanic races, their land was divided into plots by means of
hedges.

The Hawthorn is also named Whitethorn, from the whiteness of its
rind; and Quickset from its growing in a hedge as a "quick" or living
shrub, when contrasted with a paling of dead wood. An old English
name for