Hawthorn.

Botanical name: 

Spina alba.

A shrub too common in our hedges to need much description. The trunk is irregular, and seldom straight; the branches are strong, tough, and thorny; and the leaves of a glossy green and beautifully divided. The flowers are white and beautiful, the fruit is small.

The flowers and the dried fruit are used in medicine; they have the same virtue; they work by urine, and are good in the gravel, and all complaints of that kind; but there are so many better things for the same purpose at hand, that these are not much regarded.


The Family Herbal, 1812, was written by John Hill.