A BOTANICAL PARADOX 
D. F. Hiccins, Pekin, China 
( of is supposed to be the home 
of many strange things, among 
which those of the vegetable 
kingdom are not the least. There 
are giant persimmons, to four inches in 
diameter, and better to eat than 
Americans can imagine, for all the 
‘“‘nucker”’ is gone before they are ripe; 
and there are full-grown pine trees not 
over two feet high. Lilliputian lemon 
trees grow in one’s parlor and bear 
fruit ready to be picked for the fish 
when it is served in the dining-room 
The Chinese farmer is a pastmaster, in 
an empirical way, of the arts of bud- 
ding and grafting. The ‘English”’ 
walnut is indigenous to China. 
One day I made a visit to the Great 
Bell Temple, a few miles northwest of 
the city of Peking, and there I found a 
botanical wonder which outdid all that 
I have ever seen or heard about. In 
grafting, it is generally thought that 
the species must not be far removed 
from each other; but here I found a 
specific gap of a botanical phylum, and 
an evolutionary gap of geologic periods 
of time, covered, I was assured, not by 
human means, but by nature’s accidents. 
In the court of this temple is a pine 
tree (Pinus sinensis) from the side of 
the trunk of which, at about 8 feet 
above the ground, is growing a healthy 
elm tree (Ulmus pumila) about 1 foot 
in diameter. The junction is shown in 
detail in the accompanying photograph. 
Around the junction there is no sign of 
any break in the bark of the pine tree. 
Here is a problem for plant chemists. 
Can the food solutions of the gym- 
nosperms be utilized by an angiosperm? 
and I would ask the students of genetics: 
Can the “sport’’ form of variation, so 
often credited with the origin of new 
species, extend to such a violent dis- 
ruption of nature’s continuity as this? 
Or, did one elm seed, of the millions 
which have doubtless lodged in the 
crevices of pine tree bark, so sprout 
and take root that, through inherited 
or environmental advantages, it was 
able to assimilate the nutritive sub- 
stances of the pine? Or has Chinese 
arboriculture surpassed itself, and per- 
formed this union which almost staggers 
reason? 
This is truly a very wonderful thing, 
but this is not al]. In the crotch of the 
pine, some 18 feet above the ground is 
still another deciduous angiosperm grow- 
ing from the same pine tree! This tree 
is a paper-mulberry (broussonetia pa- 
pyrifera.) At the time of these obser- 
vations, in the spring of 1915, it was 
about 2 inches in diameter, and growing 
lustily. The fruits, somewhat like syca- 
more balls, were about half grown. 
It would be interesting to know if 
definitely recorded instances of such 
growths as these are to be found else- 
where. (Note—Unless there is definite 
evidence to the contrary, it would be 
much easier to believe that the pine tree 
is partly hollow, and that the elm and 
paper-mulberry have sent their roots 
down into earth and decaying matter 
in the hollow trunk.—The Editor.) 
The A. G. A. and the A. A. A. S. 
The American Genetic Association, 
being affiliated with the American 
Association for the Advancement of 
Science, is entitled to have two repre- 
sentatives on the council of the latter 
organization. Prof. Albert F. Blakeslee 
of the Carnegie Institution, Cold Spring 
Harbor, Long Island, N. Y., and Prof. 
306 
Zdward N. Wentworth of the Kansas 
State Agricultural College have been 
appointed to act in this capacity. The 
next meeting of the American Genetic 
Association will be held in New York 
City, December 26-30, in connection 
with the meeting of the A. A. A. 5S. 
