126 TWO INSTANCES OF TENACITY OF VEGETABLE LIFE. 



its "Nest in a Rock," its crevice of a dry house wall, set our 

 imaginations going. Not much sentiment, doubtless, is there in an 

 Ontario Poplar thriving in a nursery ground or a close-trained 

 jessamine with its roots in a well-dug garden border. But these 

 seem dignified somehow when we see them there battling with the 

 deadly " adventures " of drought and barren root-hold. So, if the 

 parallel is not too great, too far-fetched, so, in Sir Thomas Malory, 

 a knight on a " quest " is dignified over a knight in a pageant. It 

 is difficult to put such-like thoughts into words without their 

 seeming foolish words. But even such instances of plant struggles 

 as have now been spoken of may make it plain how trees have 

 come to give the centre to many a legend, true or fabled. It is no 

 wonder that there is the myth of the Bo Tree, the romance of the 

 Tree of the Cross. 



