178 Notes and Gleanhigs. 



Garden Thorns. — There are upwards of a hundred and fifty species and 

 varieties of "thorns " in cultivation, and amongst them all, not one can be speci- 

 fied as undesirable, where room can be found for it, and the scene is not unfit. 

 Nevertheless, thorns, that is to say, species and varieties of the genus CratcEgus, 

 may be very fairly arranged in two groups, one of which we should regard as more 

 especially adapted for large spaces, drives, and the margins of woods and shrub- 

 beries, and should designate " park thorns ; " and the other group, being better 

 adapted for contracted spaces and highly-embellished scenes, we should distin- 

 guish as "garden thorns." Without respeut to any such classification, it is cer- 

 tain that the genus Cratcegiis offers us a remarkable number of beautiful trees 

 of comparatively small growth, whether for the park or the garden, and is the 

 richest in variety of any family of ornamental trees whatever. If distinct exam- 

 ples of such as we regard as park and garden trees are required, we would 

 instance the common hawthorn for the first class, and the double-flowering 

 thorn for the second. The case might be put in a :rK)re striking manner, by 

 selecting for the park the handsome, large-leaved, vigorous-growing cockspur 

 thorn (C crits-galli\ and for the garden the elegant yellow-berried, tansy-leaved 

 ihorn {C. ianaceti'folia). To be sure, it is not necessary to institute any such 

 classification at all ; but as this is the season for planting ornamental trees, we 

 . may render some service to our readers by offering a tew remarks on the char- 

 acters of thorns, and a list of the species and varieties that are best adapted 

 for planting in gardens. 



The accepted type of the family, the common hawthorn (C oxycantha\ is 

 always beau-tiful, save and except when, in the height of summer, we sometimes 

 find it almost leafless, and covered with the dirty cocoons of myriads of caterpil- 

 lars. It is one of the first trees assailed when the weather is favorable to vermin, 

 and that is, at least, one reason why it is not well to plant it in the vicinity of 

 highly-finished garden-scenes. But in truth the hawthorn requires a great space 

 for its complete development ; and, considered as an ornamental tree, we need to 

 see it when long years have bowed its head to the ground, and it acquires the grim 

 hunchback character to which the term "creeping thorn" is applied. In old 

 parks and woods, the creeping thorns are sometimes the most interesting and 

 attractive features of the place. If we cannot find such in our rambles in the 

 month of May, we will be content to admire the snowy purity, and rejoice in the 

 spicy perfume, of an old thorn-hedgerow, where the beauty of the trees is the re- 

 sult of their assemblage in long waving lines, that give the roads and lanes they 

 enclose glorious fringes of gauzy " may." 



Between single-flowering and double-flowering thorns there is a difference 

 that must be noted when selections are made for ornamental planting. The sin- 

 gle-flowering varieties are more richly perfumed than the double, and they pro- 

 duce abundance of berries in the autumn ; whereas the double-flowering kinds 

 produce none, or so few as to aflTord no display of autumnal color. But look at the 

 old thorns now, or call to mind how they have glowed in the landscape since the 

 beginning of August, and rest satisfied that to obtain thorns with double flowers 

 is not quite so grand a feat as at first consideration of the case it may appear. 

 The varieties of C. oxycantha have just one decided advantage over the species. 



