'278 ANOMALIES OF DEV ELOPEMENT. CHAP. V. 



produced entire as before so that it is sometimes 

 difficult to point out the place of the graft, which 

 is generally discoverable, however, by means of a 

 tumor that is formed round it. 



SECTION III. 



The Branch. 



Producing IF the branch of a tree is situated as in the fore- 

 likeshoots. g om g ca e of the stem, so as to be partially or pe- 

 riodically immersed in water, it will send out also 

 the same sort of brush-like shoots. Like the stem 

 it is also liable to be disfigured by bunches or 

 knots ; exhibiting, however, an occasional variety 

 of structure which I have not observed in those of 

 the stem. The variety to which I allude seems as 

 if formed from a plexus of young shoots issuing 

 from nearly the same point, and crossing in all 

 directions, and finally incorporating together by 

 means of a sort of natural graft. Or perhaps the 

 knot is first formed, and then sends out a multitude 

 of shoots all over its surface, forming a batch inter- 

 woven all together, and exhibiting at a little dis- 

 tance something like the appearance of a pigeon's 

 With nest. These bunches are frequently to be met with 

 knots.** on tne branches of the Birch-tree, rarely on the 

 Slow-thorn (PL IX. Fig. 7), and are known 

 among the peasantry of Scotland by the name of 

 witches' knots. They are occasioned, like the 



