TREE FORMS. Cl 



though specimens have been found with a circum- 

 ference of twelve feet. G-ilpin, so quick to discern 

 picturesque beauty, was strangely oblivious of 

 that of the Hawthorn. He says : ' The Haw- 

 thorn should not entirely be passed over amidst 

 the minuter plants of the forest, though it has 

 little claim to picturesque beauty,' and he con- 

 siders, oddly enough, that 'its shape is bad.' 

 Possibly he may only have been familiar with the 

 disfigured shrub (whose shape is bad indeed), so 

 unmercifully clipped out of all naturalness; but 

 if he never saw the full-grown, perfect tree, he 

 should, at least, in the surroundings of his forest 

 home, have seen such gnarled and twisted and 

 pre-eminently picturesque forms of Hawthorn as 

 that shown, with Ivy, facing page 208. We 

 must defend a beautiful and striking shrub even 

 against the candid opinion of the genial author 

 of ' Forest Scenery.' 



Let us now briefly speak, in the enumeration 

 of the forms of tree beauty, of the familiar 

 Pear and the not less familiar Apple (page 02). 

 The curious arching of the branches of the Pear, 

 as they rise from the rugged trunk, bend, dip, 



