H4 April The Blackthorn. 



to the general harmony, but a belt of azure from the 

 gentians on an Alp, or a large patch of rather crudely 

 purple heather on the flank of a Scottish mountain, has 

 always the great advantage of irregularity about its edges, 

 which also lose themselves with more or less of grada- 

 tion in the vegetation round about. The rape-field, on 

 the other hand, is as obtrusive from the mathematical 

 definition of its outline as from its insupportable intensity 

 of hue. 



The spring of the year, like the adolescence of the 

 mind, is especially the time of crudities. May I venture 

 to observe that even the blackthorn, which the poets 

 have sung with affection, is at this time rather a crudity 

 also, and not very much better, from the colorist's point 

 of view, than snow on the hedges in winter ? Of course, 

 if you go close up to the flowers, and look at them as a 

 lady does at her bouquet, you will perceive the yellow of 

 anthers and green of calyx, but these have little effect at 

 a distance, and we feel the need of leaves. It is curious 

 how far a flowering shrub can make us feel its impor- 

 tance, for good or evil, in the landscape. A single black- 

 thorn can chill the edge of a forest, and this is the easier 

 that the forest, being as yet leafless, has a wintry look in 

 contradiction to the genial weather. A forest of oak is 

 even more leafless now than in the month of January. 

 The smaller oaks will retain the mass of their dead 

 leaves, but -the larger ones, being more exposed to the 

 wind, will have lost the greater part of theirs, leaving a 

 few only in the light sprays, which catch the sunshine 

 as specks of ruddy gold. 



