☙ Hawthorn

Genus Crataegus L. (1753).WFO

Period Breton (brezhoneg): spern gwenn [spern-gwenn] coll. LB

Period English: hawthorn; May hawthorn ◆︎;ESP pink hawthorn ◆︎.ESP

Period French: aubépine f.; FDE BD JDS LD bois de mai m. ('May-wood'); LB épine blanche f. ('whitethorn'); LB noble-épine f. ('noblethorn'); BD senellier m. LB

Fruits: hauges ?; LB poires d'oiseau pl.f. ('bird-pears'); LB senelles pl.f. LB

Period Gaulis: an sgitheach. HP:FE

Period German: Weißdorn m. ('whitethorn') JDS

Plantagenet English: hawe thorne; ramnus (Promptorium Parvulorum 1440) an Hawe tre; sinus, rampnus (Catholicon Anglicum 1483); HNE

Tudor English: hawthorne tree (Turner 1548, 1568). HNE

Elizabethian English: white thorne or hawthorne tree (Gerard 1597, 1568). HNE

Stuart English: aubespin; the white-thorne or hawthorne (Cotgrave 1611). HNE

Sentiments:

🏶︎ Prudence ◼︎ (1811-1841); BD JDS

🏶︎ Hope ▲︎◆︎ (1825-1869); HP:FE EWW SJH O&B TTA ESP CHW LH S&K HGA:OT RT:LPF

 Hope in youth ▲︎ (1832); SJH

 EspĂ©ranceHope ◼︎ (1841); JDS

🏶︎ SincĂ©ritĂ©Sincerity ◼︎ (1841); JDS

Region:

Native: Species found across Europe, including Scandinavia; throughout Russia and Eastern Asia; Western Asia excluding the Indian subcontinent (except Pakistan and West Himalaya); the Arabian Peninsular (except the Arabian Sea coastal states) and Mediterranean; Northern Africa; widely across Northern America from temperate Canada to Guatemala.WFO

Introduced: Eastern states of Australia including Tasmania and South Australia; Aotearoa; Madeira; Cape Provinces and Free State Southern Africa; Northwest European Russia; Costa Rica; El Salvador; Argentina South; Ecuador.WFO

Seasonality: TBC.

Period Colours: Flowers scarlet.SJH; its beautiful double white, red, and pink varietiesHNE

Heraldry: Plant badge of Clan Ogilvie. HP:FE

In arms, may appear fructed, flowered, or in leaf form.

By the name 'hawthorn', adopted as a badge of Henry VII, described as 'hawthorn-bush regally crowned'. James Parker's glossary gives the following examples:

Argent, a hawthorn-tree eradicated proper--SYLVESTER.

Argent, three thorn-trees vert--THORNHOLME [granted 1653].

Per pale argent and gules, a chevron between three lion's heads erased counterchanged; on a chief or a thorn-tree proper--THORNTHWAITE, Cumberland.

Argent, a thorn-tree fructed proper on a chief gules a lion passant guardant or--O'MURCHOE.

Argent, a hawthorn-tree erased vert, flowered gules--BRETLAND, co. Chester.

Argent, a chevron sable between three hawthorn-leaves vert--THORNTON, co. York.

By the name 'white-thorn', found on the arms of Aldrich, Bishop of Carlisle (1537-56):

Verte, on a fesse argent between three garbs or, banded gules, two boughs of whitethorn saltier-wise enfiled with a crown proper, between a mound royal azure and a robin redbreast proper, all within a bordure engrailed of the third[pometty ?].

As 'may-flowers':

Gules, a cross ingrailed ermine between in chief two may-flowers slipped or--MAYFIELD, co. Cambridge [granted 1684].

Religious: TBC.

Cited Species:

Note: several species were formerly grouped under Linnaeus' C. oxyacantha. His specimen in specific turned out to be C. rhipidophylla var. rhipidophylla, but the reference to 'C. oxyacantha' must be considered more general to European hawthorns in this period. None of the many named species of M. oxyacantha BD have been accepted by the WFO, and most are unplaced, so I am, for now, omitting it.

🏶︎ Crataegus laevigata (Poir.) DC. (1825),WFO midland hawthorn

 = Mespilus oxyacanthoides (Thuill.) DC. (1805);WFO LB

🏶︎ Crataegus monogyna Jacq. (1775),WFO LB common hawthorn;

🏶︎ Crataegus rhipidophylla var. rhipidophylla (Unattributed), large-sepalled hawthorn variety

 = Crataegus oxyacantha L. (1753).WFO LB

BD mentions a variety called 'Aubépine de Mahon', which has pink flowers, but I have not yet been able to narrow this to a botanical listing.

Cited Verse:

❧ 'And ye shall understande that our Lord in that night that he was taken, he was led into a garden [...]', ◆︎ "John Mandeville" (alleged) The Travels of Sir John Mandeville, (pre-1371) Cap.1 Read 1887 Edition Here (p.12); HNE

❧ 'And forth goeth al the court both moste and leste, / [...] And namely, hawthorn brought both page and grome. / With fresh garlands party blew and white, / And than rejoysen in their great delight.', 'The Court of Love', Unknown (formerly attrib. ◆︎ Geoffrey Chaucer) (pre-1535) Read Here; RT:LOF

❧ 'For thilke same season, when all is ycladd / [...] / With Hawthorne buds, and swete Eglantine, / and girlonds of roses and Sopps in wine.', 'Maye', ◆︎ Edmund Spenser, The Shepheardes Calender (1578) Read Here; RT:LOF HNE

❧ 'Gives not the hawthorn-bush a sweeter shade / [...] / O yes, it doth; a thousand-fold it doth', ◆︎ William Shakespeare, 3 Henry VI (c.1591) 2.5.42; RT:LOF HNE

❧ 'Your tongue's sweet air, / [...] / When wheat is green, when hawthorn-buds appear', ◆︎ William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream (c.1595) 1.1.183; HNE

 'This green plot shall be our stage, this hawthorn-brake our tiring house.', ibid., 3.1.3; HNE

❧ 'I cannot cog and say thou art this and that, like a many of these lisping hawthorn-buds', ◆︎ William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor (c.1597) 3.3.76; HNE

❧ 'There's a man hangs odes upon hawthorns and elegies on brambles.', ◆︎ William Shakespeare, As You Like It (c.1599) 3.2.379; HNE

❧ 'Through the sharp hawthorn blows the cold wind.' (bis), ◆︎ William Shakespeare, King Lear (c.1605) 3.4.47 and 102; HNE

❧ 'Againe betake you to yon hawthorn house.', ◆︎ John Fletcher & ◆︎ William Shakespeare, The Two Noble Kinsmen (c.1614) 3.1.90; HNE

❧ 'Amongst the many buds proclaiming May / [...] / in other colours then in white and greene', in 'The Second Song. The Argvment.', ◆︎ William Browne, Britannia's Pastorals, Book II (1616) p.63, Read Here; HNE

❧ 'And every Shepherd tells his tale / Under the Hawthorn in the dale.', L'Allegro, ◆︎ John Milton, Poems of Mr. John Milton, Both English and Latin, Compos'd at several times (1645) p.33 Read Here; RT:LOF HNE

❧ 'A deale of Youth, ere this, is come / Back, and with White-thorn laden home.', 'Corinna's Going a-Maying', ◆︎ Robert Herrick, Hesperides; or the Works both Human and Divine of Robert Herrick Esq. (1648); RT:LOF

❧ 'Now Hawthorns bloƿƿom, now the DaiĆżies Ćżpring,', 'Spring: The First Pastoral, or Damon', ◆︎ Alexander Pope, Poetical MiĆżcellanies: the Sixth Part, Containing a Collection of Original Poems, With Several New TranĆżlations, London: Jacob Tonson, Grays-Inn Gate (1709) pp.723-730 Read Here; CHW

❧ 'The hawthorn buĆżh, with Ćżeats beneath the Ćżhade, / For talking age and whiĆżpering lovers made.', ◆︎ (Irish.) Oliver Goldsmith, The Deserted Village; A Poem (1770) p.2 Read Here; RT:LOF

❧ 'Now let me sit beneath the whitening thorn, / And mark thy spreading tints steal o'er the dale;', 'Ode to Spring', ◆︎ Anna LĂŠtitia Barbauld (nĂ©e Aikin), Poems, London: Joseph Johnson, in St. Paul's Church-Yard (1773) pp.97-100 Read Here; HP:FE

❧ 'At HeĆżket yearly on St. Barnabas's day, by the highway Ćżide under a thorn tree [...]', in 'Leeth Ward. Parish of Hesket.', ◆︎ Joseph Nicolson & ◆︎ Richard Burn, The History and Antiquities of the Counties of Westmoreland and Cumberland Vol.2 (1777) p.344 Read here; HNE

❧ 'The Cotter's Saturday Night', ll.78-81, ◆︎ (Scot.) Robert Burns, Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, By Robert Burns. Kilmarnock: John Wilson (1786) pp.124-137 Read Here; RT:LOF

❧ 'Childhood: A Poem.', ◆︎ Henry Kirke White (posthumous), The Remains of Henry Kirke White, of Nottingham, Late of St John's College, Cambridge; with an account of his Life, by Robert Southey Vol.1 London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, Paternoster-Row (1813) pp.321-337 Read Here; RT:LOF

❧ 'May-day Customs', ◆︎ John Brand (ed. ◆︎ Henry Ellis), Observations on the Popular Antiquities of Great Britain: chiefly illustration the origin of our vulgar and provincial customs, ceremonies, and superstitions (1813, this ed. 1849) p.229 Read Here; HNE

❧ 'The Wonders of the Lane', ◆︎ Ebenezer Elliott, The Amulet: a Christian and Literary Remembrancer ? (1833) pp.73-77 Read Here; RT:LOF

❧ 'See too, to grace the coppice wild, / [...] / The namesake of the lovely May.', 'May', ◆︎ Richard Mant, The British Months; a Poem, in Twelve Parts Vol.1, London: John W. Parker, West Strand (1835) p.172 ll.287-300; CHW

 Commonly misattributed to ◆︎ (later Aus.) Louisa Anne Meredith (nĂ©e Twamley), who quoted it - attributed correctly - in her 1839 Our Wild Flowers, 'The Hawthorn', p.63.

❧ 'Speaking their perfume to the tell-tale air, / [...] / Exulting in its joy.', ◆︎ (later Aus.) Louisa Anne Meredith (nĂ©e Twamley), The Romance of Nature; or, The Flower-Seasons Illustrated, London: Charles Tilt, Fleet Street. (1836) p.57 Read Here; RT:LOF

❧ 'Hope in the Hawthorn lay;', 'Carnations and Cavaliers', ibid., p.175; RT:LOF

❧ 'Till stores of May, with snowy bloom, / Fill the young hedge-rows with perfume.', 'The Leafy Spring', ◆︎ Ann Taylor & ◆︎ Jane Taylor, Original Poems, for Infant Minds, by Several Young Persons, Vol.II, London: Arthur Hall, Virtue & Co. (1854) pp.35-36; RT:LOF

 While this book is first published in 1804, this poem doesn't appear until 1854 editions. The poem is unattributed to a specific sister.

❧ 'May. XVIII.—The White-Thorn.', George Milner, ◆︎ Country Pleasures: The Chronicle of a Year Cheifly in a Garden, Boston: Roberts Brothers (1881) p.83 Read Here; HNE

 I note this linked ed. has an absolutely beautiful inner-cover of intertwined foliage.

Other Verse:

❧ 'Spring, and Spring Flowers', ◆︎ (later Aus.) Louisa Anne Meredith (nĂ©e Twamley), The Romance of Nature; or, The Flower-Seasons Illustrated, London: Charles Tilt, Fleet Street. (1836) pp.13-14 Read Here.

In Fabre d'Églantine's 1793 rural emblem annex to the French Republican calendar, AubĂ©pine is the emblem of 4 FlorĂ©al (23 April).

đŸœ± On sentiments: The sentiment of hope and related sentiments appears to arise from the hawthorn being famed as one of the earliest flowering trees of summer, its blossoms famously associated with May Day (1 May), marking the transition of spring into summer. HNE notes that in his time (1884), however, hawthorn seldom flowers until June, and:

I should suppose it is never in flower on May Day, except perhaps in Devonshire and Cornwall; and it is very doubtful if it ever were so found, except in these southern counties, though some fancy that the times of flowering of several of our flowers are changed, and in some instances largely changed.

In our contemporary times of anthropogenic climate disruption, this is a somewhat haunting sentiment, though of course even scholars of Ellison's time knew industrialisation was impacting the environment.

There is also repeated mention in these texts of 'Athenian girls' and the 'altar of Hymen', the Ancient Greek god of marriage (etymologically unrelated to the vaginal tissue, but poetically associated due to the similar names throughout English poetry); said altar was supposedly lighted with torches of hawthorn wood, 'which from its gaseous nature, produces a bright flame in its green state'. The conceit is that by making offerings to Hymen, the girls hoped for a good marriage. However, I have not yet located this within a Classical text, so I cannot recommend it as fact.

There is also mention of the Troglodytae, a people appearing in Ancient Greek texts but not, as yet, identified with any single culture. In their wonderfully vague manner, floriography authors say 'we are told that the Troglodytes ...' with no reference to the specific verse or author. The conceit this time is that the Troglodytes involved hawthorn branches in the funerals of their dead, a joyous ceremony as 'they considered death as the dawning of life which should never cease' - again, an association with hope. Once more, consider this as Victorian legend until I can confirm the specific text.


Abécédaire de Flore

B. DelachĂ©naye, 1811 ◼︎


NOMS DES FLEURS
substituées aux syllabes formées de plusieurs lettres.

NOM DES FLEURS. MOTS ANALOGUES.
38. aubépine. autel, auteur.


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DESCRIPTION DES PLANTES
DE L’ABÉCÉDAIRE DE FLORE.

QUATRIÉME PLANCHE.


 38. AubĂ©pine. Ce mot Ă©quivalant Ă  Ă©pine blanche, et qui a Ă©tĂ© corrompu par le peuple en celui de Noble-Épine, est le nom d’un arbre de moyenne grandeur, croissant spontanĂ©ment dans nos forĂȘts. CommunĂ©ment on l’emploie Ă  former des haies, et il y est d’autant plus propre qu’il est armĂ© de fortes Ă©pines, et qu’ayant de la disposition Ă  faire buisson, il produit dĂšs le bas de sa tige des branches longues, rameuses, et qui s’entrelacent. Tout le monde sait qu’au printems il fait les dĂ©lices de nos campagnes par la multitude de ses guirlandes de jolies fleurs blanches et d’une odeur trĂšs suave: elles deviennent des baies rouges et brillantes qui font encore l’ornement de l’automne, et la provision des merles et autres oiseaux pour l’hiver. L’AubĂ©pine est le Mespilus Oxyacantha des Botanistes. On en garnit les bosquets d’agrĂ©ment, oĂč on le mĂȘle avec sa variĂ©tĂ© Ă  fleurs doubles, mais inodores, et, avec I’AubeĂ©pine de Mahon ou Ă  fleurs roses, dont une variĂ©tĂ© les a doubles.


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EMBLÉMES TIRÉS DU RÈGNE VÉGÉTAL.


A.


Aubépine signifie prudence.


(147)


La Flore de la Manche

LĂ©on Besnou, 1881 ◼︎

G. CratĂŠgus Tourn. — AubĂ©pine.


De ÎšÏÎŹÏ„Î±ÎčÎłÎżÏ‚, azĂ©rolier, nĂ©flier, sauvage


C. MONOGYNA Jacq. — A. MONOGYNE. — (C. oxyacantha L. — Mespilus oxyacantha GĂŠrtn. — oxyacanthoides Thuill. Mespilus spinosa sylvestris apiifolia Tourn. — Oxyacantha vulgaris J. V. Oxyacanthus Dod. Spina acuta Dod. Spinus acutus J. B.) Bret. Spern Gwenn. Angl. Common Hawthorn. Epine blanche, senellier, bois de mai, aubĂ©pine. — Lign. — Mai-juin. Haies, buissons, bois. TC.

Var. villosa. Pirou. R.

Var. laciniata Wallr.

Var. rosea AR. (Epine de Mahon.)

Fruits astringents connus sous le noms de Hauges, senelles, poires d'oiseau.


Le C. PYRACANTHA Pers. est presque naturalisé dans les environs de St-Lo.


(97-98)




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Cite this page (MLA 9th): Never Never. “Hawthorn.” Glossa Hortensia, 5 Dec. 2024, neverxnever.neocities.org/glossahortensia/crataegus. Accessed [DD Mon. YYYY].