{plantations 205 



an element of truth in it when he wrote as follows 

 in his Apologia sua Vita: 



"Again I ask what would be the thoughts of a 

 man who when examining a flower, or an herb, or a 

 pebble, or a ray of light, which he treats as something 

 so beneath him in the scale of existence, suddenly- 

 discovered that he was in the presence of some 

 powerful being who was hidden behind the visible 

 things he was inspecting, — who though concealing 

 the wise hand, was giving them their beauty, grace, 

 and perfection, as being God's instruments for the 

 purpose, — nay, whose robe and ornaments those 

 objects were, which he was so eager to analyse?" 



Following the idea of a plant possessing a distinct 

 personality, it will be found, that it is not altogether 

 fanciful. Some trees and shrubs and flowers in the land- 

 scape have, in a way, a liking for each other, a kind of 

 kinship, that is not of the botanical sort, but simply 

 an apparent wish to grow side by side. A bush honey- 

 suckle naturally likes to live with a highbush cranberry 

 or an arrowwood bush (Viburnum dentatum); the lilac, 

 on the other hand, belongs by itself in the garden in 

 a m.ore civilized sophisticated state of existence; the 

 beautiful hawthorns, both American and English, 

 belong by themselves in the wilder and more outlying 

 portions of the park or estate. So we might go on 

 with shrubs and trees of all kinds and find always that 

 there was one spot and one kind of companionship 

 where any particular tree or shrub looked especially 



