58 A LIBEL ON THE PLANE 



even to relish, the conditions which are fatal to most 

 kinds of forest growth in our murky metropolis, it 

 might be well to ascertain whether spring catarrh pre- 

 vails to a greater extent in London, where planes so 

 greatly abound, than it does in cities where there are 

 no planes, or at least none to speak of, as Birmingham, 

 Chester, Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow, etc. An 

 unprofessional estimate of the relative number of per- 

 sons so affected must be of little value ; but the impres- 

 sion received by an ordinary citizen is that the malady 

 is as prevalent in spring in one large town as another. 



Anyhow, it is cruel to give a bad name, without 

 attempting to justify it by proof, to the chief sylvan 

 ornament of London's parks, streets, and squares. It 

 reminds one of those delightful lines in Rejected 

 Addresses, satirising those who traced every mishap 

 and adversity to the direct agency of Napoleon Bona- 

 parte : 



' Who burnt, confound his soul ! the houses twain 

 Of Covent Garden and of Drury Lane ? 

 Who makes the quartern loaf and Luddites rise ? 

 Wlio fills the butchers' shops with large blue flies 1' 



