64 TREES IN NATURE, MYTH & ART 



example, has challenged comparison between 

 the oak and the Spanish chestnut, and, for 

 himself, has decided in favour of the latter. 

 In Landscape he says: "Since I cannot 

 know the reader's favourite tree, it may be a 

 pardonable egotism if I tell him which is mine. 

 As the French monarch said, ' Ex omnibus 

 floribus elegi mihi lilium,' so I would say, 

 * Ex omnibus arboribus elegi mihi castaneam '. 

 My great admiration is for the Spanish chest- 

 nut-tree, at least in the way of sturdy and 

 massive trees, but amongst light ones I am in 

 love with the birch." He notes that the bark 

 of the chestnut is more deeply furrowed than 

 that of the oak, that the trunk is at least equally 

 massive, that the branches are apparently 

 mightier in proportion to the trunk, though 

 they break off more easily in great tempests. 

 The chestnut-leaf, he says, is finer in form and 

 richer in colour than that of the oak, and the 

 chestnut has also the advantage in both flower 

 and fruit. The acorn is a food acceptable only 

 to pigs : the chestnut is a food for human 

 beings : in common use among the poor, and 

 a delicacy for the rich. 



Is it then merely through insular prejudice 



