TREES IN NATURE 59 



is not ''of the essence" of the horse that his 

 skin can be converted into leather, nor of a 

 man that at last he may become food for 

 worms. We need not avoid mention of the 

 use of trees to man, but primarily we want 

 to regard them as living their own life. 



Man has, of course, modified the trees of 

 the forest to his own use. As he has planted 

 the corn thickly so that it may bear much fruit 

 and grow but little leaf, so he has planted the 

 fir and the pine alone so that they may grow 

 masts for his ships, poles for his scaffolding, 

 and — prosaic use — props for his coal-pits. 

 Many a writer has contrasted the monotony 

 of the useful plantation with the diversity of 

 the natural forest. It is with the plantation 

 that most of us have to be content, and with 

 trees growing in small companies, singly, or 

 in rows along the hedge or road-side. This is 

 the country, not wild nature. But it is an 

 approximation to wild nature. Anyhow we 

 have little more than this close at hand. Our 

 primeval forests have long been cleared. Here 

 and there a fragment remains ; but that is all. 

 Still the woods are impressive. The vaulted 

 abbey that man has wholly built becomes 



