134 gilhn's forest scenery. 



sheet — a bright spot, wlaicli is seldom found in 

 harmony with the objects around it. In autumn 

 the Hawthorn makes its best appearance. Its 

 glowing berries produce a rich tint, which often 

 adds great beauty to the corner of a wood or the 

 side of some crowded clump.' 



We mnst here venture to differ from our Author in his 

 estimation of the Hawthorn ; for we consider it, not as a 

 ' poor appendage ' to the scenes of Nature, but as-ameagg^ 

 one of the most picturesque. Nor is it a bush merely, 

 though commonly seen in this form, but a tree of fair 

 dimensions when growing in a forest. "We have indeed 

 seen some fine specimens of Cratagus oxyacantha in the 

 New Forest and also in Epping Forest, and have been 

 struck by the remarkahlo picturesqueness of their gnarled 

 and twisted stems and branches. Sir Dick Lauder, in the 

 edition of the ' Forest Scenery,' which he published in 

 1834, mentions a large Hawthorn growing near the village 

 of Duddingstone, in the county of Edinburgh. He says 

 he measured this tree in the year 1.818, and found it, at 

 three feet above the root, nine feet in girth, and, a little 

 way above the roots, twelve feet round ! The Hawthorn 

 too, is, we think, extremely beautiful in leaf, flower, and 

 fruit, and one of the most delightful sights in the forest, 

 in the early spring, is that afforded by the contrast be- 

 tween the golden green foliage of the Hawthorn and the 

 more sombre colours of the woodland. — Ed. 



