148 



CHIPS. 



[June 1885. 



Chips. 



Trees growing through a Tomb- 

 stone. — With a friend of mine, I visited 

 a jjlace called Lucien, in Hertfordshire, 

 about eighteen miles from London, to 

 see, as was said, " the greatest cariosity 

 ever heard tell of," situated in Lucien 

 churchyard. There we saw seven ash 

 and three sycamore trees growing 

 through a tombstone out of a grave. 

 The stone was about twelve feet long, 

 six inches thick, and eight feet wide. 

 The growth of the trees had split the 

 stone in all directions. Some of the 

 trees at that time were seven inches 

 through, and about fifteen feet high. 

 The grave lot was enclosed with an iron 

 fence twelve feet high, and the branches 

 of the trees and some parts of the trunk 

 had grown into the fence in all imagin- 

 able shapes and forms. Of course, 

 there is a " true story" connected with 

 the circumstance, as the people of Hert- 

 fordshire will strongly affirm. The 

 jierson buried in this grave was a lady 

 of title, Lady Anne Grimstone, who was 

 buried there somewhere about ahundred 

 years ago. She was an unbeliever in a 

 Supreme Being — in fact, an infidel — 

 and those who doubt it can buy a book, 

 sold by pedlars for sixpence, strongly 

 confirming the horrible story in detail. 

 This lady asseverated previous to her 

 death, that if there be a God or devil, 

 a heaven or hell, she hoped ash and 

 sycamore might grow through her body. 

 No one planted these trees there, and 

 the people religiously believe that to 

 prove to the living the horrible heresy 

 of the dead, the trees came from her 

 body, and the more to attract attention, 

 have grown up through and broken the 

 stone. — John Wooding in Gardener's 

 Mortthhj. 



The Lanarkshire Orchards. — Mr. 

 Tait informs us in his prize essay in the 

 new issue of the Highland and Agri- 

 cultural Society's Transactions, that the 

 characteristics of these orchards, which 

 are more extensive than of old, are 

 changing. Thei-e is now less tree fruit 

 raised, but more gooseberries, with a 

 great trade to Glasgow and other jelly 

 factories, which are often planted on 

 land leased for 19 years, at a rent of 

 £b per acre, after the first year or two. 



A DISCLOSURE of buried trees in 

 Dumfries was made at the gasworks 

 in the heart of the town, when the 

 foundations of a new gasometer were 

 being dug. The finds comprised a 

 trunk of Scotch fir, six feet in height, 

 with the bark upon it ; pieces of elm, 

 oak, and hazel, with nuts and cones, 

 broken antlei's, as well as coleopterous 

 remains. 



Too Many Roots. — Edmund Hersey 



writes in the New England Homestead, 

 that if selecting young trees to trans- 

 plant he would reject those with large 

 quantities of fibrous roots. Other 

 practical men as well think that a tree 

 stands better and grows better without 

 such a mass of roots, which hinder its 

 start off", retard its growth, and never 

 allow it to become so strong as it would 

 have been if dejirived of them. A 

 reason why the tree starts off better, 

 the fibrous roots being cut away, is that 

 the large roots immediately send out 

 others ; whereas if the fibrous roots are 

 allowed to remain a large portion of 

 them die, and new roots are not started 

 off. 



New Caledonia. — Cocoa-nut trees 

 exist in the colony in different varieties, 

 nearly all having been planted by the 

 Kanakas. Most of the groves are on 

 the eastern side, where the majoi'ity of 

 the tribes are to be found. This precious 

 tree ^oroduces yearly from 50 to 80 

 nuts. The kernels, dried in the sun, are 

 readily sold under the name of coprah, 

 at from 300 to ,350 francs {£12 to £\A) 

 per ton. This is the chief means by 

 which the natives obtain the goods 

 and luxuries of civilization. A few im- 

 portant groves are, however, held by 

 Europeans. The other principal fruit 

 trees are the orange, lemon, banana, 

 canella apple, mango, guava and Shang- 

 hai ])each. In spite of indigenous 

 valuable timber, no important felling of 

 trees exists in New Caledonia. The 

 quantity cut is not even sufficient for 

 the use of the colony, since New Zealand 

 and Californian imported timber 

 amounts to the yearly value of 500,000 

 francs (£20,000). 



