1 76 NATURE NEAR LONDON 



Of all the foreign shrubs that have been brought to 

 these shores, there is not one that presents us with so 

 beautiful a spectacle as the bloom of the common old 

 English hawthorn in May. The mass of blossom, the 

 pleasant fragrance, its divided and elegant leaf, place 

 it far above any of the importations. Besides which, 

 the traditions and associations of the May give it a 

 human interest. 



The hawthorn is a part of natural English life 

 country life. It stands side by side with the Englishman, 

 as the palm tree is pictured side by side with the Arab. 

 You cannot pick up an old play, or book of the time 

 when old English life was in the prime, without finding 

 some reference to the hawthorn. There is nothing of 

 this in the laurel, or any shrub whatever that may 

 be thrust in with a ticket to tell you its name ; it has a 

 ticket because it has no interest, or else you would 

 know it. 



For use there is nothing like hawthorn ; it will trim 

 into a thick hedge, defending the enclosure from tres- 

 passers, and warding off the bitter winds ; or it will grow 

 into a tree* Again, the old hedge-crab the common, 

 despised crab-apple in spring is covered with blossom, 

 such a mass of blossom that it may be distinguished 

 a mile. Did any one ever see a plane or a laurel look 

 like that ? 



How pleasant, too, to see the clear white flower of the 

 blackthorn come out in the midst of the bitter easterly 

 breezes ! It is like a white handkerchief beckoning to 

 the sun to come. There will not be much more frost ; 

 if the wind is bitter to-day, the sun is rapidly gaining 

 power. Probably, if a blackthorn bush were by any 

 chance discovered in the semi-parks or enclosures alluded 

 to, it wou'd at once be rooted out as an accursed thing. 



