SOME NOTABLE TREES IN CANADA. 



Fig. 1659.— French Thorn on the Bastion at Fort Erie. 



I'll take a branch of it he said, across the 

 Vl iM8 stormy sea, 

 That roars between New France and Old, and 



W dJUHBplant it solemnly. ■ 



It will remind and teach mankind 

 Of pains that blessing bring." 



O cries Count Bois le Grand as 

 in the poet's Idyll he stands 

 beside cross and holy thorn 

 tree in Old France and swears 

 fidelity to his fair, angelic wife. From 

 Palestine the tree had come, a plant 

 from that which supplied the crown of 

 thorns of sacred memory. 



Commandant of the Fort at Niagara 

 the Count plants the thorn on the plain 

 hard by. The English begin a long 

 forest march to seize Niagara Ere 

 they arrive " a dame of charms most 

 radiant, the queenflower of the gay capital 

 Quebec, enthralls his heart. 



" He loves again despite the pain 

 And stinging of the thorn." 



A hunting party rides gaily along. 



The thicket stirs before the fair dame. 

 She shoots and finds her victim, no wild 

 animal, but alas ! her soldier lover. 

 Tenderly she nurses him but as justice 

 would have it, the thorn spray she wears 

 as a token of contrition, estranges him 

 from her, reminding him of his far-off 

 spouse 



Niagara is taken A bitter life des- 

 troying thorn it is to the disabled 

 warrior to see the flag of England rise. 

 The cry " O thorn of penitence " bursts 

 from the dame. 



" She kissed his mouth, 

 Fell by his side. 

 And both lay dead as stone " 



The most enduring monument of the 

 French occupation, a group of these 

 trees, though a century and a half has 

 elapsed since their planting, still stands 

 near the Grove of Paradise at Niagara. 

 Our illustration is of one of their pro- 

 geny on the South Western bastion, Fort 

 Erie. 



38i 



