TREES NATIVE AND NATURALISED 35 



the complaints of the deer parks became loud and 

 deep. It was monstrous that " a twentieth part of 

 the realm was employed upon deer and coneys," 

 that " there should be more parks in England than 

 in all Europe beside." All this came, practically, 

 to an end in the troublous times of civil war ; the 

 greater number of such parks were demolished, the 

 fences overthrown, the deer driven off ; and their 

 owners found a new and quite harmless pastime in 

 the stocking and ordering of their gardens and 

 pleasaunces. 



As may be seen in the plates and designs of that 

 period, long straight lines, varied by oblongs and 

 squares, with plantations of trees set out in formal 

 quincunx, expressed the highest excellence in gar- 

 den art. In point of fact, the greater energy was 

 at first expended not so much on the plan of plant- 

 ing ; the important matter then was to collect 

 the largest number of new and foreign trees where- 

 with to plant. Thus it came about that the intro- 

 duction of many of our most familiar trees dates 

 from this time. 



It is scarcely to be wondered at that the Oriental 

 plane should have been one of the earliest 1548 

 being the year assigned for as an ornamental tree 

 it held an unparalleled place amongst the ancients. 

 Tradition tells of a historic tree of the kind which 

 was all but worshipped with incredible honours and 

 gifts by Xerxes, who camped about it with his 

 army in full march, thereby delaying his warlike 

 operations for many days, ordering that it should 

 be nourished with libations of wine. To this day 

 the plane is almost venerated in the East; but 



