THE HAWTHORN. 



Crataegus oxyacantha. 



the "milk-white thorn that 

 scents the evening gale " had, 

 as a literary subject, been " un- 

 attempted yet in prose or rhyme," 

 the temptation would at this 

 moment be too strong to be re- 

 sisted. But turn to the books, 

 dear reader, and see that whoever 

 could say or sing something in 

 its praise has made the most of 

 his advantage. The history of 

 the thorn has in consequence 

 grown to vast proportions. We 

 may therefore devote the small 

 space at our disposal to a new 

 essay on the place of the thorn 

 in the garden ; and we begin by 

 V*^*" ^11 <^~ '^ saying that the double variety 



here figured represents a very 

 important and splendid section 

 of thorns that, in the most proper sense of the term, may 

 be described as pictorial and garden trees. 



It may be said of the thorns that they are more ac- 

 commodating than any equally handsome class of hardy 

 4 I 



