120 FAMILIAR TREES 



suitable size, strength^ and abundance, no wood is 

 better adapted for a farmer's walking-stick. The 

 wood of the Plum is -of a beautiful brownish-red, 

 resembling Mahogany ; and, being hard and suscep- 

 tible of a polish, it has been to some extent em- 

 ployed in veneering, and is certainly one of the 

 prettiest timbers that we have. 



Though associated with disagreeable weather, the 

 Blackthorn when in bloom is a beautiful and charac- 

 teristic feature of English landscape that we should 

 be loth to lose ; and though the Plum, with its snowy 

 blossoms, creates an impression of chilliness in spring, 

 the whiteness is in its case relieved by the admixture 

 of delicate young foliage, suggestive in its verdure of 

 the sunny days that are coming to ripen the pale 

 flowers into warm-tinted fruit. 



