Monkey Puzzles & The Puzzle of the Midland Mediterraneans
Tony and Dave's autobiographical snippets suggest to this third
ex-Midlander (ex-Black-Country-man, even, in my case: an arcane
reference that probably only Tony and Dave will understand: no one
else needs to, BTW!) that there's a mini-thesis lying in wait here,
based on an explanation for the mystery of why Midlanders seem to
have this attraction for the flora of the world's hot spots. I dare
say our ex-Midland trio could suggest one or two....
The best bunch of Monkey Puzzles I've ever seen (even though they're
now past their best and could do with some selective felling and
replanting: they do self-seed but the seedlings are mostly cropped off
by grazing cattle) is a 'helmet' of them, several hundred strong, on
top of an isolated hillside on the Monreith estate in South-west
Scotland (which once belonged to the great Victorian and Edwardian
plantsman, Sir Herbert Maxwell; I imagine the trees were planted
during his ownership). If you come across them suddenly, in the right
light, they have an eerie the-Martians-have-landed sort of beauty.
Tim Longville
