156 VOICES FROM THE WOODLANDS. 



designed for pleasure-gardens; they blossom freely either 

 as trees or dwarf shrubs, and nothing can be more 

 attractive than the roseate hue of the pink kind. And 

 if the admirer of forest trees lingers with delight while 

 passing a fragrant hawthorn bush in spring, how much 

 more the botanist, when observing the construction of each 

 blossom ! Not looking, as the author of ' Sylva Morifera' 

 has well observed, merely to notice the stigma, or to count 

 the stamens ; but to observe the shape of the five petals, 

 whose concave forms protect the pollen, and mature it by 

 acting as reflectors. 



Strange it seems that Gilpin, who loved trees of every 

 shape and hue, should have cared little for the hawthorn ; 

 but an historian of woodland scenery, who often sought 

 out his favourite haunts, has thus ably spoken in its 

 praise : 



" You may see that picturesque tree," he said, " or 

 shrub, according to its locality, hanging over rocks, with 

 deep shadows under its foliage, or else clinging with 



