Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-06-13
CHINESE TREE CULTURE
DEFORMED AND WARPED SPECI-
MEMS IN FORBIDDEN CITY.
Young Locusts Braided Together and
Allowed to Grow in Strange
Shapes.

| From the Scientific American.
| Queer, aren't they?" said one of the
party as they noticed the tree in the IL
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 information
about all kinds of queer growths of Chinese
trees and flowers.
NO, not queer, just Chinesey," he re-
piled.
! The tree is ordinary evergreen. 1t had
| been split up from the roots about six
| feet when small sapling, the roots hav-
| ing been carefully divided 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 it grew in its
| natural form. 1t was placed directly in
| front of the door of the temple, between
| 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
| the Forbidden City, in front of two of the
| temples The one referred to is before the
| temple in the winter palace, where Count
| Won NalOeTSee s troops were SldllOueu, anu
the third is in similar position in the
summer palace. Whether this particular
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
braiding two three or four sprouts of
tree together, and allowing them to grow
in that form. In the campus of the Pekin
University there was a species 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 70
grow until they are each three inches IN
diameter. favorite decoration for la "ns
or courts is made from this locust. The top
of the tree is cut off and the root oil an
other the same size grated thereon. The
downward instead of upward, and are COW
cred with dense foliage. This species OF
shrub is very common and familiar to all
landscape gardeners.
Plums and Chrysanthemums.
very interesting and attractive flower
ing shrub is called Kan-chieh-mei 1t Is
species of plum, is used as a pot plant ana
grows two 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-whfch it does be-
fore 1t leaves-it is a mass of flowers.
Perhaps the most attractive specimen OF
Chinese plant cultivation Is the grating or
the chrysanthemum. They have 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 well as
on the top, they graft a chrysan-hemum
stalk. The root of this weed Is much
stronger than the root of the flower. SO mat
when they bloom the flowers are double as
large as the ordinary chrysanthemum, and
in addition to this extra ldxuriance of bios
som all varieties of color appear on the
same stalk. Blooming as they do in mid
winter, 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 crossing fruit. as a
result we are able to obtain very fine spec
linens, especially Of the peach.