28 



THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap 



trasted with a wooden, or even a brick fence, it is 

 like the land of Canaan compared with the deserts 

 of Arabia. The leaf is beautiful in hue as well as 

 in shape. It is one of the very earliest in the 

 spring. It preserves its bright green during the 

 summer heats. The branches grow so thick and 

 present thorns so numerous, and those so sharp, as 

 to make the fence wholly impenetrable. The shelter 

 it gives in the early part of spring, and the shade it 

 gives (on the other side of the garden) in the heat 

 of summer, are so much more effectual than those 

 given by wood or brick or stone fences, that there 

 is no comparison between them. The Prirarose 

 and the Violet, which are the earliest of all the 

 flowers of the fields in England, always make their 

 first appearance under the wings of the Haw-Thorn. 

 Goldsmith, in describing female innocence and sim- 

 plicity, says : " Sweet as Primrose peeps beneath 

 the Thorn." This Haw-Thorn is the favourite 

 plant of England : it is seen as a flowering shrub 

 in all gentlemen's pleasure-grounds ; it is the con- 

 stant ornament of paddocks and parks ; the first ap- 

 pearance of its blossoms is hailed by old and young 

 as the sign of pleasant weather ; its branches of 

 flowers are emphatically called " May," because, 

 according to the Old Style, its time of blooming was 

 about the first of May, which, in England is called 

 " May-Day ;" in short, take away the Haw-Thorn, 

 and you take away the greatest beauty of the En- 

 glish fields and gardens, and not a small one from 

 English rural poetry. 



49. And why should America not possess this 

 most beautiful and useful plant? She has English 

 gevv-gaws, English Play-Actors, English Cards and 

 English Dice and Billiards ; English fooleries and 

 Eiaglish vices enough in all conscience ; and why 



