154 TREES IN NATURE, MYTH & ART 



rough trunks that carry the higher flowers. 

 To him, it makes the main difference between 

 one plant and another, whether it is to tell as a 

 light upon the ground, or as a shade upon the 

 sky." 



In the preceding chapter we have already 

 noted this distinction. The first kind of plants 

 Ruskin calls tented plants. ''They live in 

 encampments, on the ground," he says, *'as 

 lilies ; or on surfaces of rock, or stems of other 

 plants, as lichens and mosses." One wonders 

 if the child would ever call them tented plants. 

 The epithet does not strike one adult, at least, 

 as being particularly appropriate. These 

 plants grow in companies, but they are not 

 tented. And do not the other plants, those 

 that we call trees, live also in encampments or 

 companies? The child would be more likely 

 to call the plants that grow on ground, or rock 

 or tree-stem, "carpet plants," thinking of them 

 as they affect himself. 



And, if he knew anything about tents, he 

 would be likely to compare the tall-growing 

 plants to them. Ruskin calls them building 

 plants. ''These will not live on the ground," 

 he says, "but eagerly raise edifices above it. 



