178 



REVERSE BUDDING, &c.' 



May I therefore be permitted to solicit 

 your attention, and that of your readers, 

 to this fine text, entreating them to bear 

 it in mind and practice it, for those dear 

 and fruitful vines whom they have so 

 solemnly sworn to cherish ! 



Although the button-ball yields seed, 

 it bears no fruit ; yet it bears on this 

 question, inasmuch as when I was first 

 in Oxford, I noticed in the garden of the 

 inner quadrangle of New College, some 

 very singular trees of that description. 

 The lower part of some of them sprang 

 from the ground in one large bole, then 

 separated into two, three, and four, uni- 

 ting again into one ; others had two and 

 three stems, which soon united into one, 

 then separated, and afterwards united a -^^^ 

 few feet higher up, presenting altogether ^fe?r^%a^:p^^"^m 

 the most fantastic and whimsical appear- 

 ance of any trees I ever beheld. The 

 gardener, a very old man, who had been 

 acquainted with the college all his life, 

 could give no account by what means these 

 singularities Avere produced. All I could 

 get out of him was, that they were so 

 when he was a child, and that " the man's 

 head who planted them never ached!" 



I regret to learn that these curiosities 

 have since been cut down; but if you 

 should think one of them worth inserting, 

 I herewith transmit you a drawing, which 

 I made on the spot in August, 1821, (Fig. 

 28.) Above the part represented, the tree 

 was healthy and luxuriant. There were, 

 at the time, several equally fantastic. 



I may also mention that there was lately 

 growing in a garden in Water-street, Ge- 

 neva, N. Y., a magnificent elm of very 

 large dimensions ; and at about four feet 

 from the ground, a limb of perhaps 18 

 inches diameter, shot out horizontally, even 

 with the surface of the ground, full 20 feet ; 



Fig. 28. — Lower part of one of tlie curious Sycamore Trees, 

 in the garden of New College, Oxford. 



and from that horizontal limb, two others 

 grew up vertically, at a right angle, as 

 straight as an arrow ! Altogether, this 

 noble tree had so singular an appear- 

 ance, that I transferred it to my sketch 

 book. 



And now, I would be^ leave to ask, are 

 these two instances orthodox illustrations 

 of the text — "As the twig is bent, the 

 tree's inclin'd," or are they not ? 



Robert Balmanno. 



Brooklyn, L. I., Sept. 6, 1848. 



[The original weeping ash tree is (ac- 

 cording to Loudon,) an accidental variety, 

 from seed in Cambridgeshire ; and trees of 

 it, in the nurseries, are propagated by graft- 

 ing in the usual manner. We have once 

 before heard of this effect, as having been 

 artificially produced by reverse budding; 

 and Mr. Balmanno's account is very inte- 

 resting to the curious amateur. Ed.] 



