TREES ABOUT TOWN, 201 



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 enclosure from 

 trespassers, and warding off the bitter winds; or it 

 will grow into a tree. Again, the old hedge-crab — 

 the common, despised crab-apple — in spring is 

 covered with blossom, such a mass of blossom that 

 it may be distinguished a mile. Did any one ever 

 see a plane or a laurel look like that ? 



How pleasant, too, to see the clear white flower of 

 the blackthorn come out in the midst of the bitter 

 easterly breezes ! It is like a white handkerchief 

 beckoning to the sun to come. There will not be 

 much more frost; if the wind is bitter to-day, the 

 sun is rapidly gaining power. Probably, if a black- 

 thorn bush were by any chance discovered in the 

 semi-parks or enclosures alluded to, it would at once 

 be rooted out as an accursed thing. The very 

 brambles are superior ; there is the flower, the sweet 

 berry, and afterwards the crimson leaves — three 

 things in succession. 



What can the world produce equal to the June 

 rose? The common briar, the commonest of all, 

 offers a flower which, whether in itself, or the moment 

 of its appearance at the juncture of all sweet summer 

 things, or its history and associations, is not to be 

 approached by anything a millionaire could purchase. 

 The labourer casually gathers it as he goes to his 

 work in the field, and yet none of the rich families 



