DECIDUOUS ORNAMENTAL TREES. 
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poetic, and legendary associations which belong to it in 
England ; for scarcely any tree is richer in such than 
this. With the floral games of May , this plant, from its 
blooming at that period, and being the favorite of the 
season, has become so identified, that the blossoms are 
known in many parts of Britain chiefly by that name. 
Among the ancient Greeks and Romans, they were dedi- 
cated to Flora, whose festival began on the first of that 
month ; and in the olden times of merry England, the 
May-pole, its top decked with the gayest garlands of these 
blossoms, was raised amid the shouts of the young and 
old assembled to celebrate this happy rustic festival. 
Chaucer alludes to the custom, and describes the hawthorn 
thus : 
Marke the faire blooming of the Hawthorne tree, 
Which finely cloathed in a robe of white, 
Fills full the wanton eye with May’s delight. 
Court of Love. 
And Herrick has left us the following lines to “ Corrina 
going a Maying 
“ Come, my Corrina, come ; and coming marke 
How eche field turns a street, eche street a park 
Made green, and trimmed with trees ; see how 
Devotion gives eche house a bough 
Or branch ; eche porch, eche doore ere this, 
An arke, a tabernacle is. 
Made up of Hawthorne, neatly interwove, 
As if here were those cooler shades of love.” 
The following lines descriptive of the English species, 
we extract from the “ Romance of Nature” 
“ Come let us rest this hawthorn tree beneath. 
And breathe its luscious fragrance as it flies. 
