822 THE FLOEAL WORLD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 



highly finished garden scenes. But in truth the hawthorn requires 

 a great space for its complete development, and considered as an 

 ornamental tree, we need to see it when long years have bowed its 

 head to the ground, and it acquires the grim hunchback character to 

 which the term " creeping thorn " is applied. In old parks and 

 woods, the creeping thorns are sometimes the most interesting and 

 attractive features of the place. If we cannot find such in our 

 rambles in the mouth of May, we will be content to admire tlie 

 snowy purity, and rejoice in the spicy perfume, of an old thorn 

 hedgerow, where the beauty of the trees is the result of their assem- 

 blage in long waging lines, that give the roads and lanes they enclose 

 glorious fringes of gauzy "may." 



Between single-flowering and double-flowering thorns there is a 

 diff'erence that must be noted when selections are made for orna- 

 mental planting. The single-flowering varieties are more richly 

 perfumed than the double, and they produce abundance of berries 

 in the autumn ; whereas the double-flowering kinds produce none, or 

 so few as to afford no display of autumnal colour. But look at the 

 old thorns now, or call to mind how they have glowed in the land- 

 scape since the beginning of August, and rest satisfied that to obtain 

 thorns with double flowers is not quite so grand a feat as at first 

 consideration of the case it may appear. The varieties of C. oxy- 

 cantha have just one decided advantage over the sjoecies, that they are 

 not so much disfigured by caterpillars as the species, and as for any 

 other advantage in respect of their employment in gardens, we may 

 as well reckon their less robust growth in their favour. 



Thorns will grow in almost any soil and situation. On chalk 

 and gravel they thrive, if there is some depth of earth. On clay they 

 grow vigorously, provided the land is well drained, and in common 

 with all other trees, a fertile, mellow loam suits them admirably, and 

 only in such a soil can they besaid to attain yjerfection as timber 

 trees. In any and every case thorns require free exposure ; they will 

 not long live in the shade and drip of other and larger trees. The 

 vigorous berry-bearing kinds may be propagated from seeds, which 

 usually vegetate the first season after sowing, if sown in autumn, 

 though some remain in the ground a whole year or more before they 

 start. But the double-flowering and delicate habited kinds are feom- 

 monlv grafted on the hawthorn, and this system enables the cultivators 

 to produce fine specimens quickly, and of any height up to eight or 

 ten feet. jSTo ornamental tree is more obedient to the pruning- 

 knife ; for if spurred close in, they form close compact head?, and 

 flower freely. The small-leaved kinds, however, bear hard pruning 

 best ; but unless there are special reasons for forming the head to 

 a certain shape, it is better not to prune at all ; then the tree 

 acquires a free graceful aspect, and some of the varieties of pendant 

 habit " Aveep " to the ground. 



Crat^gus 0XTCA.\TnA, the common " white thorn," " hawthorn," 

 or " may," is well known for its summer bloom aud autumn berries. 

 In the green glades of a well-wooded park, a few^ ancient thorns 

 are always objects of interest ; the best garden varieties are the 

 following : — • 



