MAT. 



Towards the close of the month the Burnet Eose 

 (Rosa spinosissima), presents its cream-coloured and 

 delicately scented flower, a week or two before its 

 sisters of the same family, somewhat rare, however, 

 except in the vicinity of the coast. At length under 

 the influence of a bright May's increasing temper- 

 ature, the Hawthorn (Cratcegus oocyacantha,) puts on 

 its snowy attire in full perfection, and filling the 

 country far and wide with fragrance, " with its locks 

 o' siller grey" dots the landscape with indescribable 

 beauty. This is so favourite a tree with me, that I 

 cannot forbear to quote Ho WITT'S sweet lines upon it, 

 breathing fragrance delicious as the unsullied May 



itself in his " Forest Minstrel" 



" The beautiful Hawthorn, that has now put on 

 Its summer luxury of snowy wreaths j 

 Bending its branches in exuberant bloom, 

 While to the light enamour'd gale it breathes, 

 Rife as its loveliness, its rathe perfume : 

 Glory of England's landscape ! favourite tree 

 Of bard and lover ! it fliugs far and free 

 Its grateful incense : whether you arise 

 To catch the first long sun-gleam in the skies, 

 A nd list the earliest bird-notes ; whether you 

 Linger amidst the twilight and the dew 

 There, through the silent air its odour strays, 

 Sweet as in home-scenes of our earliest days." 

 Who can forget, in reference to the Hawthorn, that 

 matchless verse of BTJBBTS, where he describes the 



happy lovers seated 



" Beneath the milk-white Thorn that scents the evening gale." 

 If, however, any lady is so fastidious as to object to 

 our (of course platonic) effusions " beneath the milk- 

 white Thorn," we beg to move an adjournment to the 

 garden, where, perhaps, the shade of some dark 



