134 TREES IN NATURE, MYTH & ART 



yet been made to the flowers of our trees. 

 Those of our larger trees are with very few 

 exceptions too small to have any appreciable 

 effect on the appearance of the tree. The 

 most considerable exception, as we have already 

 seen, is the horse-chestnut, whose large pyra- 

 midal groups of flowers inevitably attract atten- 

 tion. For anything like the same effectiveness 

 we have to go to the trees of smaller growth ; 

 and here we get even greater effectiveness, 

 the flowers, in some cases, either preceding the 

 leaves, or overwhelming them by their pro- 

 fusion and brilliancy. 



The most familiar examples, apart from the 

 fruit-trees, are the hawthorn and the laburnum, 

 both of which, like the horse-chestnut, flower 

 in May, when spring is passing into early 

 summer. The masses of sweet-scented, white 

 or pink flowers on the hawthorns are then one 

 of the chief joys of the countryside. Where 

 there are numbers of white hawthorns together, 

 as, in my own neighbourhood, at Capesthorne, 

 they look as if delicately grey-white snow had 

 fallen upon them alone. 



The laburnum is a garden-tree, and its long 

 hanging racemes of brilliant yellow flowers 



