NATURE NEAR LONDON = 



to town than many of the semi-country seats are 

 now, all our trees flourish in perfection. 



Hardy birches, too, will grow in thin soil. Just 

 compare the delicate drooping boughs of birch 

 they could not have been more delicate if sketched 

 with a pencil compare these with the gaunt 

 planes ! 



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 impor- 

 tations. Besides which, the traditions and associa- 

 tions 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 en- 

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