176 THE CHESTNUT. 



white-beam is remarkable for the snowy aspect of 

 its foliage when stirred by the wind ; the bag-nut 

 for its chandeliers of pinky white in May, followed 

 in autumn by round bags containing each a bril- 

 liantly-polished brown bead; the bird-cherry, Pno^'x 

 Padua, completely covers itself with racemes of 

 white flowers exhaling the odour of honey. Then 

 there are the innumerable smaller kinds of willow 

 and sallow ; the holly, covered in winter with those 

 glorious scarlet bracelets ; and the hawthorn, or 

 " May," so deservedly famed in verse. The sloe, 

 though rarely attaining the dimensions of a tree, has 

 likewise many claims upon our interest. So has the 

 berbery ; so has the sweet-gale ; so have those very 

 curious trees, the sea-buckthorn and the juni- 

 per ; so have the hazel, the hornbeam, the arbutus, 

 and the wayfaring-tree. 



After those which stand independently, there are 

 whole tribes of roses and brambles, the sweet-brier, 

 the honeysuckle, and the clematis; and longer-living, 

 and farther-reaching, and greener than any, the in- 

 comparable old ivy of the ruin and the aged tree. 

 Another set, of still smaller dimensions, attracts us 

 in the wild currants, the privet, and the whortle- 

 berry ; here, too, we find the broom and prickly 

 furze, with their myriads of golden butterflies. In 

 truth, there is no absolute stopping-place. Trees 

 are the maximum ; between their majesty and the 

 minimum there is so beautiful a descending scale of 



