CROWNING THORNS

摘要

Many country people were afraid to bring flowering blackthorn into the house for fear of bringing bad luck to a member of the family-it was seen to represent the union of life and death as the white flowers bloomed on bare, apparently dead branches, devoid of leaves. Common in hedgerows along the towpath and one of our earliest flowering shrubs, the nve-petalled flowers open from late March before the foliage appears. The mass of creamy-white blossom is a pleasure to see after the winter adornment of frost or snow; the petals fall after about a fortnight, blowing into their own miniature "snowdrifts". The leaves of blackthorn unfurl towards the end of April, after the blossom has faded. They were used early in the 19th century to adulterate the then expensive Chinese tea, a practice that was eventually legalised as long as the mixture was referred to as "English tea". The other common thorny hedgerow shrub, hawthorn, flowers in May after its leaves have opened.