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Treasures of our Memorial Library Branches of the West Vancouver Memorial Library Well, yes .... a tree grows in Brooklyn, they tell us. But another grows in West Vancouver, in a very unexpected place: right INSIDE our cherished library. As befits a tree growing in so special a place, this is indeed a special tree. Our tree is not a California redwood or a sequoia. Those types would be a bit large for the space available. It is, nevertheless, a stately, handsome tree, a type of fig tree with an intriguing name: Ficus Benjaminus. It is a variety which does not bear fruit, so the library staff continue to bring their 'Twinkies" for collation. The tree was about two feet tall when it was bought, in 1984, by Mr. and Mrs. Jim Drew. Like The Biggest Aspidistra in the World, it shot up like a rocket when they placed it tenderly in their home. In 1994, when the Drews moved to a smaller home, they sadly asked the library if it would adopt the tree, and the library accepted it with pleasure, especially when it was realized that the fig would fit handily into their decor. This splendid tree now lives in the library's ground floor atrium, at its East end, and is obviously quite content there. It is serviced - watered and occasionally trimmed - by roving staff of West Vancouver's Parks Board. It looks very healthy, and now towers to a height of about seventeen feet, with an abundant crown of leafy branches. It doesn't yet rival The Biggest Aspidistra, but there is still room for it to push up another ten feet or more. So there it rests, an object of affection for visitors and staff. Mrs. Drew still visits the tree several times a week and watches with approval the care it receives from its foster parents. Just recently, the Parks Board staff re-potted it. It is surely worthy of note that Mrs. Drew was a graduate of McGill University, and was a teacher of French for twenty-five years. Mr. Drew, for thirty-five years, was an executive of the Macmillan Bloedel Company. They proved themselves to be, indeed, true friends of the library. Ted Hill