186 THE HUMAN SIDE OF TREES 



tastic monsters some curving toward him like huge 

 dragons with gaping mouths and outspread wings, 

 others coiled like torpid boas, and still others em- 

 bracing each other with fury like gigantic wrestlers. 

 Here is a centaur on a gallop, carrying upon its 

 hindquarters something like a hideous ape ; there is 

 a nameless reptile devouring a panting hind; far- 

 ther along, a satyr dancing with a he-goat not so 

 ugly as himself ; and often it is a single cleft, knotty, 

 twisted and crooked tree that you would take for 

 a group of ten distinct trees, and that represents 

 all these various monsters and unites in a single 

 head, which is as horrible as that of an Indian 

 fetich, and is crowned with a single green branch 

 like a crest." 



Curious trees ! Their name is legion but nothing 

 is more wonderfully curious than the life and bodily 

 workings of the most prosaic tree nearest to the 

 reader at this present moment. 



