j8o forest trees. 



The worshippers of Baal raised their altars under groves of Oak 

 trees ; and the ancient priests of Britain, the Druids, worshipped under 

 the Oak, which was held sacred by them on that account. 



The " Oak of Palestine " is an Ilex. The writer has a small spray 

 sent from the Holy-land taken from an ancient tree in Hebron, tradition- 

 ally said to be Abraham's Oak. The tree beneath which the Patriarch 

 spoke with the Lord and the destroying Angels, and where stood the tent 

 in which Sara prepared the feast for the sacred trio. " If not the tree so 

 celebrated," wrote the reverend gentleman who sent the relic, " No 

 doubt one of very great antiquity." 



The leaves of the Oak were used for the civic crown, with which 

 Roman citizens were honoured. 



The Oak seems to be more subject to the effects of lightning than 

 any other of the forest trees. The cause possibly may exist in the mineral 

 matter that enters into the formation of this hardwood tree, or it may be 

 that the Oak is often left to stand as an ornament by itself, in exposed 

 places, open pastures, or parks, and is therefore more exposed to the 

 influence of the elements in times of storm and tempest. 



There is a couplet in a poem by Sir Henry Wotton, that has much 

 significance on this subject — 



" I would be high, but see the lofty Oak, 

 Most subject to the remling thunder's stroke." 



The Oak-tree is the crest of the Holy-Oak family, and of the 

 Camerons. 



In some of the country villages in the eastern counties of England 

 in my younger days, the houses of the villagers were adorned with Oak 

 toughs and leaves on the twenty-ninth of May, the anniversary of the 

 res'toration of Charles the Second ; while gilded Oak-apples (galls) were 

 worn by the men and boys as emblems of the Oak of Boscobel, in which 

 the royal fugitive was concealed after the loss of the battle of Worcester.* 



The Wkeping White Elm. — Ulmus Americana^ (L.) 



" Under the shady roof 

 Of branching Elms star-proof ; 



P'oUow me. " — Milton. 



" With what free growth the Plane and Elm, 

 Fling their huge arms across my way. — Bryant. 



The White Elm is one of the tallest of the hardwood trees of our 

 Canadian forest.s, where it attains to a great height. Straight as a lance 



♦Note. — On my uratidiiioUiiT's side my father was (Icsccnilcd botli frDUi the loyal Cottcrcl 

 family, and also from that of the Pendrils, of no less nolilu ]iriii(i|il(s, wlio withstood all lirities to 

 betray tlieir prescribed defeat<Ml Sovereign. Many were the t,ilrs tliiit wire told at our fireside, of 

 deeds of loyal faithfulness, that are nnrerordrd in history, to whldi my sisters and myself listened 



