The Hawthorns 



and when it first came into cultivation no man knows. English- 

 men will tell you it has always formed the hedgerows of their 

 snug little island, and the sweetness of the blossoms will be one of 

 the last things to fade from the exile's memory. Snowy white, 

 and pink and rose coloured, the "blossoming May" turns the 

 whole countryside into a garden, with linnets and skylarks filling 

 the fields and lanes with music. "Oh! to be in England, now 

 that April's there!" Browning's poetry is sometimes obscure, 

 but here is a line that needs no explanatory note for any of his 

 countrymen. 



The leaf of the English hawthorn is deeply cut, like our 

 parsley haw, in the type species. But this species we shall 

 rarely see. It has been so long in cultivation that the improved 

 horticultural varieties are legion. These are much in evidence 

 in American gardens, where they are usually grown as single 

 specimens, for their showy flowers and coral-red fruits. 



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