FLOWER AND PLANT LORE 



ICDWAUI) TYRRELL, TORONTO, ONT. 



I WILL leave my history and lore of 

 flowers and plants for a while, as our 

 garden beauties are taking their rest, and 

 write some of my gleanings about trees. 

 The early Christian teachers of European 

 nations taught that tree planting was an act 

 of piety to God and a duty for the future. 



A proverb oi northwest India declares 

 that three things mal<e a man truly a man — 

 to have a son born to him. to di"" a well, to 



A Toronto Elm Tree 



plant a tree. The planting of a tree is a 

 trifling expense, there it grows and costs 

 nothing but time. " Every tree is a feather 

 in the earth's cap; it is a comfort, an orna- 

 ment, a refreshing to the people. It is a 

 virtue to set out trees and beautify God's 

 earth." 



The asking of a distinguished guest to 

 plant a tree is a pleasant way of commemo- 

 rating his visit ; this has been done in the 

 Allan Gardens here by members of our 

 royal family. .According to the German 

 fancy no tree planted as a memorial will 



grow and flourish unless it has a motto 

 given at the time of planting. When the 

 late Baron Bunsen was visiting Lepsius, at 

 Berlin, in 1857, the antiquary requested him 

 to plant a young oak in his grounds. I 

 held the trees, writes Bunsen, while the earth 

 was thrown over its roots, and I said in giv- 

 ing the name : 



Oak, I plant thee, grow in beauty ; straight and 



firm and vigorous stand, 

 Bunsen is the name I give thee, flourish in the 



German land; 

 For the house of Lepsius blooming, through the 



storm grow fair and free. 

 And a shelter in the noonday to his children's 



children be. 



It is of trees already grown and come to 

 their maturity that I am interested. " And 

 what a glorious object is a tree, how mag- 

 nificent on the boundless plain or mighty 

 hillside." But the solitary tree there is 

 scarcely its match for beauty among such 

 objects in the face of the earth. Well 

 might Mrs. Hemans write : 



The stately homes of England, 



How beautiful they stand, 

 Amidst the tall ancestral trees. 



O'er all the pleasant land ! 



The elm, the patriarch of the family of 

 shade trees, the majestic, the umbrageous 

 elm. If we notice the frequent occurrence 

 of the elm in situations where without it the 

 landscape would be a blank, but with it ex- 

 ceedingly picturesque, the graceful outlines 

 of its festoons of foliage painted on an even- 

 ing sky, we cannot but allow that it ranks 

 very high. Few I think of its brethren 

 excel it in grandeur and beauty. 



There are many handsome elms in this 

 city, but the elm in the Normal school 

 grounds (west side), a cut of which ap- 

 pears herewith, stands out very prominently. 

 Although now, in winter, it shows many 

 abrupt, twisted and irregular limbs, it is a 

 glorious object in the spring and summer, 

 it=; full top l)ending over toward the ground 

 on every side (150 feet from side to side) 



