56 TREES IN NATURE, MYTH & ART 



we still have ; but many are no longer grown : 

 and artificial selection has added a veritable 

 legion of new kinds. My own winter-stock of 

 apples is mainly composed of a kind that has 

 gone out of favour, and is steadily being ousted 

 in my own orchard by newer and certainly 

 better varieties. Such changes have been 

 brought about by man's ingenious modification 

 of nature to his own use. But what, we have 

 asked before, is nature? What is natural 

 selection? What selects? Or who selects? 

 And to what end has been made the selection 

 that has resulted in all the variety now exist- 

 ing? There is plenty of room here for 

 imagination. 



Again, we may proudly say that we no 

 longer believe in the magical power of trees. 

 No ? Is there magic only if a twig of willow 

 held in a man's hands will bend down over a 

 place beneath which there is water ? Is there 

 no magic, no wonder, in the nutritive and cura- 

 tive relation of plants to animal life ? Has 

 cookery blinded us to the romantic fact that 

 we eat roots, stalks, leaves, fruits and seeds ? 

 Because we have medicines in bottles, with 

 Latin names on the labels, must we forget 



