The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-07-25
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CHINESE TREE CULTURE.
DefOrmed and Warped Specimens
in Forbidden City.
From the Scientific American.

TOUl the 0CleHIlIlC american.
Queer, aren't they?" said one of the
party as they noticed the tree in the
illustration. who's queer?" asked the
little man with the short legs and
large head. THE Chinese" Why"
Look at that tree"
The tree was of special interest to
the little man, as he was collecting in
formation about all kinds of queer
growths of Chinese trees and flowers.
mo. not queer just Chinesey," he re-
piled.
The tree is an ordinary evergreen.
about six feet when small sapling.
the roots having been carefully di-
vided, and thus planted in front of the
temple. The two halves were placed
three feet apart, each having the same
curve to the place where they Joined,
from which point 1t grew in it's nat
ural form. 1t was placed directly in
front of the door of the temple, be-
tween the door and the gate of the
court, ten feet from the gate and thirty
feet from the door, as though 1t was
designed that the worshiper would
pass through the tree before entering
the temple.
Thus far we have discovered only
six of these trees. Four are in the
north end of tho Forbidden City, in
front of two of the temples. The one
referred to is before the temple in the
winter palace, where Count Won Wal
dersee's troops were stationed, and the
third is in a similar position in the
summer palace. Whether this particu-
lar kind of tree is confined to imperial
grounds we cannot say, but thus far
we have seen none in other localities.
Braiding Tree Sprouts,
The Chinese are fond of wrapping or
braiding two, three or four sprouts of
a tree together, and allowing them to
grow in that form. In the campus of
the Pekin University there was spe-
cies of locust, which they call the
Huai shu, and which, by the way, is
the best shade tree of North China,
the two sprouts of which had been
wrapped together when small and
when sawed down by the Boxers they
were each six inches in diameter.
Only a short distance from where
the writer is now sitting is an apricot
tree on which is an abundance of
fruit. 1t consists of four sprouts
which have been neatly formed into
a braid and have continued to grow
until they are each three inches in
diameter. A favorite decoration for
lawns or curtis is made from this To-
Gust. The top of the tree is cut OF
and the root of another the same size
CRATER thereon. The roots thus be-
come branches, which grow downward
instead of upward, and are covered
with a dense foliage, This species of
shrub is very common and familiar to
all landscape gardeners.
pIn,u~ and IA
A very interesting and attractive
Towering shrub is called Kan-chieh-
mel. 1t is a species of plum, is used
as a pot plant and grows two or three
feet high. Every branch is bent or
broken in as many ways as possible
to bring them all close together, so that
when it blooms-which it does before
it leaves-it is mass of flowers.
Perhaps the most attractive specimen
of Chinese plant cultivation is the
grating of the chrysanthemum. They
have a large, common weed called hao
TIE. In the early summer they cut the
branches off this weed and in the place
of each branch, as we'll as on the top,
they graft a chrysanthemum stalk.
The root of this weed is much strong
err than the root of the flower. so that
when they bloom the flowers are dou-
BILE as large as the ordinary chrysan-
luxuriance of blossom all varieties of
color appear on the same stalk. Bloom
ing as they do in midwinter, they are
very attractive.
1t goes without saying that a people
who thus understand the grating of
flowers are not ignorant of any OF the
processes of budding, grating or cross
ing fruit as a result we are able 10
obtain very fine specimens, especially
OF she peach.