647 



would be hard upon the plant, I say, if under all these disadvantages 

 it were made answerable for its appearance, and found fault with be- 

 cause it was not a fine plant of the kind. And so we find it ordained 

 that in order that no unkind comparisons may be drawn between one 

 and another, there are not appointed to plants the fixed number, posi- 

 tion, and proportion of members which are ordained in animals (and 

 any variation from which in these is unpardonable), but a continually 

 varying number and position, even among the more freely growing 

 examples, admitting therefore all kinds of license to those which have 

 enemies to contend with, and that without in any way detracting from 

 their dignity and perfection. 



" So then there is in trees no perfect form which can be fixed upon or 

 reasoned out as ideal, but that is always an ideal oak which, however 

 poverty-striken, or hunger-pinched, or tempest-tortured, is yet seen 

 to have done, under its appointed circumstances, all that could be ex- 

 pected of oak. 



" The ideal therefore of the park oak is that to which I alluded in 

 the conclusion of the former part of this work, full size, united ter- 

 minated curve, equal and symmetrical range of branches on each 

 side. The ideal of the mountain oak may be anything, twisting, and 

 leaning, shattered and rock-encumbered, so only that amidst all 

 its misfortunes, it maintain the dignity of oak ; and, indeed, I look 

 upon this kind of tree as more ideal than the other, in so far as by its 

 efforts and struggles, more of its nature, enduring power, patience in 

 waiting for, and ingenuity in obtaining what it vrants, is brought out, 

 and so more of the expanse of the oak exhibited, than under more 

 fortunate conditions. 



" And herein, then, we at last find the cause of that fact 

 which we have twice already noted that the exalted or seeming- 

 ly improved conditions whether of plant or animal, induced by 

 human interference, is not the true and artistical ideal of it.* It 

 has been well shown by Dr. Herbert, that many plants are found alone 

 on a certain soil or subsoil in a wild state, not because such soil is 

 favourable to them, but because they alone are capable of existing 

 on it, and because all dangerous rivals are by its inhospitality re- 



" * I speak not here of those conditious of vegetation which have especial reference 

 to man, as of seeds and fruits, whose sweetness and farina seem in great measure 

 given, not for the plant's sake, but for his, and to which therefore the interruption in 

 the harmony of creation of which he was the cause is extended ; and their sweetness 

 and larger measure of good to be obtained only by his redeeming labour. His curse 

 has fallen on the corn and the vine, and the wild barley misses of its fulness, that he 

 may eat bread by the sweat of his brow." 



