Quote Originally Posted by oldboy View Post
An idea has recently struck me. "The" is used here not because the author talks of not trees in general, but about the trees the people lived in when they were apes. If the author had just said just "trees", it would have meant trees of all types: the palm, the spruce, the birch and so on. But saying "the trees", he limited the meaning of "trees" to those especial trees.
What do you think?

Usage note
In American English the adjective special is overwhelmingly more common than especial in all senses: He will be of special help if you can't understand the documentation. The reverse is true of the adverbs; here especially is by far the more common: He will be of great help, especially if you have trouble understanding the documentation. Only when the sense “specifically” is intended is specially more idiomatic: The machine was specially designed foruse by a left-handed operator.

Quote Originally Posted by Crocodile View Post
"Can't see the wood for the trees".
And I've always heard it as "You can see the forest through the trees."