THE SCARLET THORN.
John Burroughs, an American essayist and naturalist. Born at Roxbury, New York, April 3, 1837. From a letter in the St. Nicholas Magazine of July, 1892. (See post, Nason.)
There are a great many species of the thorn distributed throughout the United States. All the Northern species, so far as I know, have white flowers. In the South they are more inclined to be pink or roseate. If Columbus picked up at sea a spray of the thorn, it was doubtless some Southern species. Let us believe it was the Washington thorn, which grows on the banks of streams from Virginia to the Gulf, and loads heavily with small red fruit.
The thorn belongs to the great family of trees that includes the apple, peach, pear, raspberry, strawberry, etc., namely, the rose family, or Rosaceæ. Hence the apple, pear, and plum are often grafted on the white thorn.
A curious thing about the thorns is that they are suppressed or abortive branches. The ancestor of this tree must have been terribly abused sometime to have its branches turn to thorns.
I have an idea that persistent cultivation and good treatment would greatly mollify the sharp temper of the thorn, if not change it completely.
The flower of the thorn would become us well as a National flower. It belongs to such a hardy, spunky, unconquerable tree, and to such a numerous and useful family. Certainly, it would be vastly better than the merely delicate and pretty wild flowers that have been so generally named.