THE PLANTING OF ARAUCARIAS 231 



stances that in common fairness ought not to be 

 forgotten or omitted from the indictment. First and 

 foremost of these is, that it is generally, more often 

 than anywhere else, to be found planted in the 

 indecorous position of a 20-fL. -square grass plot, in 

 front of an inartistically built suburban villa, with 

 one prickly-clothed branch protruding into the 

 parlour window and another into the panes of glass 

 of what should be the best-lighted bedroom of the 

 ill-treated dwelling-house. Under these circumstances 

 w4iat wonder if it, as an ornamental product of the 

 earth, presents a sad dissembling of an appropriate 

 appearance ! Monkeys copy their masters, we have 

 often heard tell, but the poor old Puzzle Monkeys 

 have no other option than to follow^ the fashions of 

 those who plant them, and '* Fashion," as Victor 

 Hugo once said, " has committed more crimes than 

 revolutions." For this error of planters — an error 

 greatly in excess of any demerit on the part of the 

 tree in the abstract — we have no palliation to offer. 

 Were the poor tree itself given a chance, were its 

 supersaturated system for a short time endowed 

 with the power of speech, might it not sa}', and say 

 with some truth, *' You have placed me in positions 

 unfitted, and in whereabouts that are totally out 

 of place with any keeping of my traditions, and 

 then you have turned round and called me ugly ! 

 Had \'ou instead planted me in groups in your 

 woodlands, where my stems would have been laid bare 

 by self-pruning processes, as was my state when first 

 you found me in Chili, and were my topmost heights 

 given chance to soar into the blue, far and high and 

 against the skies of heaven, as is permitted to your 

 native product, the Pine of Scotland, for instance — • 

 then might I, even had I not commanded your 

 admiration, at least have escaped the wither of your 

 contempt," 



