144 TREES IN NATURE, MYTH & ART 



conspicuous flowers do not grow on con- 

 spicuously large trees. Also we speak of 

 fruit-trees, as though all trees did not bear 

 fruit. What we call fruit-trees are, of course, 

 those that bear fruit which we use for food. 

 So we often speak of the larger trees as 

 timber, again thinking of the use we make 

 of them, and not of the ends they have in 

 and for themselves. It is not to deprecate 

 our regarding things largely from the point 

 of view of their usefulness to ourselves that 

 I draw attention to these commonplace facts. 



Indeed, I have at once to mention a charac- 

 teristic of the trees, as distinct from other parts 

 of nature's pageant, that is useful to us. 

 More than anything else we value them as a 

 shade, a shelter. They and the rock-caves 

 were all the shelter our remote ancestors 

 possessed. Instinctively animal and bird still 

 seek a refuge from danger in the wood or 

 shrubbery. And it is in summer that we 

 most need the shade of the trees and that 

 they are able to afford it. Not that we can 

 think of this as being planned for our con- 

 venience. For the woodland would be a 

 better screen against the winds if it retained 



