CURIOUS TREES 185 



furnish them with small, savoury fruits and seeds 

 which can be ground into flour. 



Probably the most curious and monstrous trees 

 in all the world are the olive trees of Majorca. 

 Here our interest is in something more than mere 

 size, fruit or even appearance ; it is in an abnormal- 

 ity and grotesqueness which are positively mystical 

 and uncanny. The olive was not native to the 

 Island of Majorca, but was introduced there by the 

 Romans. Some peculiarity of soil or climate has 

 resulted in the production of a grove of trees of 

 most remarkable forms and shajj^s. 



The trees are very old. In most cases, the centres 

 of the huge trunks have entirely disappeared, leav- 

 ing supporting fragments of peculiar outline. The 

 upper portions of the main trunk are usually intact, 

 but so contorted as to be scarcely recognisable. 

 Scraggly, crooked and entangled, these trunks as- 

 sume the most demoniacal shapes imaginable and 

 look like anything except trees. 



George Sand once marvelled over them and thus 

 described her emotions: 



"When a person takes a walk in the evening un- 

 der their shade, it is very necessary for him to re- 

 call the fact that these are indeed trees, since, should 

 he credit his eyes and his imagination, he would be 

 overcome with fright in the midst of all these fan- 



