INTRODUCTION 



MAN is the highest form of animal life and the 

 trees are the highest form of vegetable life. 

 They have much in common. 



We humans are inclined to assume too great a 

 superiority over our fellow creatures of a great uni- 

 verse. The doctrine that the earth was created for 

 our special benefit still obtains a wide credence. 

 We lose sight of the fact that, after all, plants, 

 animals and the human biped are all made of the 

 same stuff, by the same God; governed by the 

 same chemical and physical laws and subject to 

 the same final bodily dissolution. 



In The Human Side of Plants it has been 

 shown that plants and trees possess certain mental 

 and moral characteristics and the attributes of rea- 

 son, memory, hope, language, love, and all forms 

 of righteous ambition. These in man we claim to 

 belong to an immortal spirit, rather than to an 

 earthly body. Why not make the same concession 

 to the trees? 



Few thinking minds can study these marvellous 

 beings and fail to be convinced that they are living 



