to adulterate tea; the bark furnishes a yellow dye, and with copperas, is used to dye black.

It is scarcely necessary to describe the appearance of this plant, since it forms the common material of hedges in the neighbourhood of towns as well as in the depths of the country, and is one of the first plants on which we perceive the tender green foliage of spring. Its white and fragrant blossoms too!-who is unacquainted with them, named as they are from the lovely month of May? The village May-pole, that relic of old times, is

not yet quite forgotten, nor are the May-day garlands of village children yet neglected; but vainly have we looked for some years past for the true "May," or hawthorn-blossoms, on May-day. These blossoms now rarely open before the end of the month, or the commencement of June. They are succeeded by a profusion of berries called haws (hence the name hawthorn), which in autumn become of a glowing red colour, and

remain long on the branches, affording a welcome supply for the larger birds during winter.

The hawthorn must not, however, be passed over as a mere hedge-plant, for when allowed to grow to its natural size it forms a handsome bush, and in old age a picturesque, and gnarled tree, very pleasing to the eye. Many examples of beautiful and aged thorns are to be found, in Bushy Park for instance, which will fully redeem the tree from such censure as is bestowed upon it by the celebrated Gilpin, who denies much picturesque beauty to the hawthorn. "Its shape," he

says, "is bad; it does not taper and point like the holly, but is rather a matted, round, heavy bush. Its fragrance, indeed, is great; but its bloom, which is the source of that fragrance, is spread on it in too much profusion; it becomes a mere white sheet, a bright spot, which is seldom found in harmony with the objects around it. In autumn, the hawthorn makes its best appearance. The glowing berries produce a rich

tint, which often adds great beauty to the corner of a wood, or the side of some crowded clump."

Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, in his edition of Gilpin's Forest Scenery, endeavours to rescue the hawthorn from this slight upon its beauty. He says, "We think Mr. Gilpin is peculiarly hard on the hawthorn. Even in a picturesque point of view, which is the point of view in which he always looks at nature, the hawthorn is not only an interesting object by itself, but produces a most interesting combination or contrast, as things may be, when grouped with other trees. We have seen it, hanging over rocks, with deep shadows under its foliage, or shooting from their sides, in the most fantastic forms as if to gaze at its image in the deep pool below. We have seen it, contrasting its tender green, and its delicate leaves, with the brighter and deeper masses of the holly and the alder. We have seen it growing under the shelter, though not under the shade, of some stately oak; embodying the idea of beauty protected by strength. Our eyes have often caught the motion of the busy mill-wheel, over which its blossoms were clustering. We have seen it growing grandly on the green of the village-school, the great object of general attraction to the young urchins, who played in idle groups about its roots; and perhaps the only thing remaining to be recognised when the school-boy returns as the man. We have seen its aged boughs overshadowing one half of some peaceful woodland cottage; its foliage half concealing the window, whence the sounds of happy content and cheerful mirth came forth. We know that lively season,

'When the milkmaid singeth blythe,
And the mower whets his scythe,
And every shepherd tells his tale

Under the hawthorn in the dale;'

and with these and a thousand such associations as these, we cannot but feel emotions of no ordinary nature, when we behold this beautiful tree."

PLANTING A THORN-HEDGE.

293

Fully participating in this opinion of the hawthorn, let us notice its cultivation for purposes of utility rather than of beauty. Hawthorn-plants are easily raised from the ripe haws, or seed of the plant, but some care is required in collecting it. If a large heap of haws be allowed to lie long together, the fruit will ferment, and the vegetative powers of the seed will be destroyed. When sown, the seed does not germinate till the second spring, and when sufficiently advanced, the young seedlings must be planted out from the seed-bed and cultivated for two or three years longer, before they are fit for the purpose of a fence. They are, indeed, sometimes used at a very early age; but it is considered better to purchase from the nursery at once plants of six years old or thereabouts, and which will more speedily become useful in their new situation.

There is another and a quicker way of raising thornplants, which is sometimes adopted. This is by planting fragments or trimmings of the roots, which may be obtained in transplanting and renewing hedges. These, if placed in a bed of good earth, will shoot out in the following spring, and furnish the materials for a hedge in a much shorter time than by raising them from seed. Such cuttings must be buried deeply in the earth, beyond the influence of frost, or they will not succeed. The general practice of nurserymen, however, is to raise the plants from seed.

The method of planting a thorn-hedge depends entirely upon the nature of the soil: if this be high and subject to drought it may be necessary to plant the hedge below the common surface of the field, to save the plants from being entirely dried up if, on the contrary, the soil be very wet and marshy, the hedge must be raised considerably above the common surface, by means of an embankment on the top of which it is planted; for the hawthorn never prospers on cold wet soils. Where the soil is neither too wet nor too dry, and where there is no need of the drainage afforded by a ditch,

the hedge is simply planted on the common surface of the field.

But the plan most generally approved is the union of hedge and ditch, which affords a secure fence, and at the same time carries off the superabundant moisture of the field. For this purpose a ditch is prepared, and the earth from it is thrown up to form a mound for the protection of the plants. But it must ever be remembered that cold, heavy, unprepared soil, such as might be dug up from an ordinary ditch, is not proper for these plants. No wonder that fences planted in such soil seldom prosper. It is on well-manured and well-prepared earth alone that thorn-plants should be cultivated, for these plants require quite as much nourishment to ensure their healthy DITCHER'S growth, as would be necessary for the most important grain-crop. This was known in the time of Tusser, for he recommends ploughing and delving as the needful preparation for a hedge.

SHOVEL.

"Go plough or delve up, advised with skill,
The breadth of a ridge, and in length as you will;
Where speedy quickset for a fence you will draw,
To sow in the seed of the bramble and haw."

When the line of the fence has been properly marked out with a cord, and poles or pegs at certain distances, the digging commences. In preparing the ditch, it is necessary to keep it of not more than a spade-breadth at bottom, with the sides sloping at an angle of forty-five degrees. The earth which forms the mound on one side of the ditch is shaped and beaten with the spade, and a little ledge or scarcement is formed at the foot of the mound as the bed of the young plants. Some persons greatly object to this scarcement, and prefer planting the thorns immediately in the slope of the bank, without any protecting ledge. They think that the scarce