1 88 TREES IN NATURE, MYTH & ART 



the reed is introduced to mark the course of the 

 river, or the tree to mark the covert of the wild 

 beast, or the ambush of the enemy ; but there 

 is no especial interest in the forms of the vege- 

 tation strong enough to induce them to make 

 it a subject of separate and accurate study. 

 Again, among the nations who followed the 

 arts of design exclusively, the forms of foliage 

 introduced were meagre and general, and their 

 real intricacy and life were neither admired nor 

 expressed. But to the Gothic workman the 

 living foliage became a subject of intense affec- 

 tion, and he struggled to render all its characters 

 with as much accuracy as was compatible with 

 the laws of his design and the nature of his 

 material, not unfrequently tempted in his en- 

 thusiasm to transgress the one and disguise the 

 other." 



It is perhaps well to say, with reference to 

 this passage, that there were meanings in the 

 older sculpture, beyond those relating to the 

 chase and war, of which, though Ruskin here 

 makes no mention of them, he was not ignorant. 

 We have already taken note of them, and shall 

 have, almost immediately, to refer to them again. 



Up to this point the reader may perhaps 



