With these views established in our mind, we were not a little pleased to find that in the beautiful new edition of “English Botany,” by the accomplished editor, J. T. Syme, Esq., F.L.S., &c., figures and descriptions are given of the two forms; and we here reproduce in opposite columns the descriptions referred to with a figure of the early form we have mentioned, that our readers may compare it with the common whitethorn:— _Cratægus oxyacantha._ /—————————————————^——————————————————\ _Cratægus oxyacanthoides_ _Cratægus monogyna_ (_Glabrous Whitethorn_). (_Common Whitethorn_). Plate CCCCLXXIX. (E.B.) Plate CCCCLXXX. (E.B.) Leaves obovate or rhomboid- Leaves rhomboidal or rhomboidal- obovate, with 3 to 5 lobes, ovate, with 3 to 5 lobes, margins margins slightly convex from the straight or concave from the base base to the apex of the first to the apex of the first lobe, lobe, usually serrated; lobes usually entire, except at the scarcely longer than broad, tips of the lobes; lobes longer generally rounded. Peduncles than broad, and acute at the commonly glabrous. Calyx-tube apex. Peduncles generally downy. glabrous; segments glabrous, Calyx-tube more or less downy; ovate-deltoid, acuminate, segments slightly downy, ovate- spreading-reflexed, with recurved triangular, acuminate, suddenly points. Styles usually 2 or 3. reflexed. Style 1. Fruit with Fruit with 2 or 3 stones. 1 stone. (See plate.) That the glabrous whitethorn would make the best hedge-row form we have no doubt, as its free growth and early leafing particularly recommend it; and besides, though not the commonest, we cannot help thinking it to be the hardiest variety, and one that would be likely to succeed in soils where the ordinary one would be very slow in growth. We have occasionally met with it in nursery-plantations, as well as in hedge-rows, where it is distinguished at a glance by its more freely growing twigs and brighter coloured, quite smooth leaves; so also, but more rarely, we have met with the Glastonbury thorn in the hedge-row, which we look upon as a variety of the glabrous thorn, a specimen of which is now before us (January, 1865), with both leaves and flowers well in bud, in the midst of a deep snow and a severe frost. This variety is fabled to have sprung from Joseph of Arimathæa’s staff, which he is supposed to have planted in the soil at Glastonbury, on Christmas-day, prior to the foundation of the abbey at that interesting place; and we have found some natives, both here and in Herefordshire—whither perhaps the thorn had spread with sorts of apples,—who adduce the budding of this thorn, which is usually after our present Christmas-tide, as an evidence that Old Christmas is the right day.