AMERICAN GARDENER. 31 



Primrose and the Violet, which are the earliest 

 of all the flowers of the fields in England, al- 

 ways make their first appearance tinder the 

 wings of the Kaw-Thorn. Goldsmith, in de- 

 scribing female innocence and simplicity, says : 

 " Sweet as primrose peeps beneath the Thorn." 

 This Haw -Thorn is the favourite plant of Eng- 

 land: it is seen as a flowering shrub in all gentle- 

 men's pleasure-grounds ; it is the constant orna- 

 ment of paddocks and parks; the first appear- 

 ance of its blossoms is hailed by old and young 

 as the sign of pleasant weather ; its branches of 

 flowers are em phatically called " May, 5 ' because, 

 according to the Old Style, its time of blooming 

 was about the first of May, which in England 

 is called "May day ;" in short, take away the 

 Haw-Thorn, and you take away the greatest 

 beauty of the English fields and gardens, and 

 not a small one from English rural poetry. 



49. And why should America not possess 

 this most beautiful and useful plant? She has 

 English gew-ftaws, English Play- Actors, Eng- 

 lish Cards and English Dice and Billiards; 

 English fooleries and English vices enough in all 

 conscience; and, why not English Hedges 9 , 

 instead of post-and-rail and board fences ? If, 

 instead of these steril-looking and cheerless en- 

 closures the gardens and meadows and fields, in 

 ihe neighbourhood of New- York and other ci- 

 ties and towns, were divided by quick-set hedg- 

 es, what a difference would the alteration make 

 in the look, and in the real -value too, of those 

 gardens, meadows and fields ! 



50. It may be said, perhaps, that, after you 

 have got your hedge to the desired height, it 



