Thursday 7 December 2023

Practical Tree Test

Alexander Lenard, Valley of the Latin Bear (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1965), pp. 44-45:

Perhaps someday science will recognize the “practical tree test” and a competent psychologist will be able to furnish a “systematic interpretation.” I am ready to help with a few hints: dense, high, very dark hedge of mandarin trees: introvert, shy person. Palm trees in front of the house: proud, sure of himself, lover of the exotic. Pear trees around the house: practical sense, little originality. Plane trees: a nonsuperstitious settler - because the superstitious ones are afraid of a tree whose bark peels off every year. It could be the cause of skin diseases, even leprosy.... Some houses on the way to Inhambu tell even more. Grapevines on a trellis, a kitchen in a building apart: an Italian home. Roses and geraniums: girl in the house.