DECIDUOUS ORNAMENTAL TREES. 191 



kinds, are the Scarlet Thorn tree, (C. coccinea,) and its vari- 

 eties the Washington Thorn, (C jpojndifolia ) and the Cock- 

 spur Thorn, (C crus-galli); all of which in good soil, will 

 grow to the height of twenty or twenty-five feet, and can 

 readily be transplanted from their native sites. 



The English Hawthorn is not only a beautiful small tree, 

 but it is connected in our minds, with all the elegant, poetic, 

 and legendary associations which belong to it in England ; 

 for scarcely any tree is richer in such than this. With the 

 floral games of May^ this plant, from its blooming at that 

 period, and being the favourite of the season, has become so 

 identified, that the blossoms are known in many parts of 

 Britain chiefly by that name. Among the ancient Greeks 

 and Romans, theywere dedicated to Flora, whose festival 

 beofan on the first of that month ; and in the olden times of 

 merry England, the May-pole, its top decked with the gayest 

 garlands of these blossoms, was raised amid the shouts of 

 the young and old assembled to celebrate this happy rustic 

 festival. Chaucer alludes to the custom, and describes the 

 hawthorn thus : 



Marke the faire blooming of the Hawthorne tree, 

 Which finely cloathed in a robe of white, 

 Fills full che waaton eye with May's delight. 



Court of Love. 



And Herrick has left us the following lines to " Corrina 

 going a Maying ;" 



" Come, my Corrina, come ; and coming, mark 

 How eche field turns a street, eche street a park 

 Made green, and trimmed with trees ; see how 

 Devotion gives eche house a bough 

 Or branch ; eche porch, eche doore ere this, 

 An arke, a tabernacle is. 

 Made up of Hawthorne, neatly interwove. 

 As if here were those cooler shades of love." 



