ORGANIC ' 



have not this stiffness of fibre at first, but gradually 

 attain it as they advance in age ; each layer of wood 

 added to the base of the pendent shoot brings it more 

 upright ; hence it annually gains elevation : were 

 this otherwise, a weeping willow would never rise 

 from the surface of the ground. 



There are many instances of casual flexibility among 

 plants, owing entirely to over-luxuriant growth. Every 

 gardener must have noticed the dangling position 

 of the strong shoots of Jargonelle pear, and other 

 fruit trees. Underwoods, especially of ash, if after 

 they are felled a favourable growing season follows, 

 rarely make straight poles ; the weight of the shoots, 

 with their ample foliage, bends them to the earth, 

 from which position they do not soon recover. 



Accident has produced varieties of erect-growing 

 trees, which have become horizontal or rather pros- 

 trate growers, and art hath perpetuated them. Such 

 are the weeping ash, and one variety of the white- 

 thorn. It does not appear, however, that the hang- 

 ing position and downward direction of the shoots of 

 these trees proceed from laxity of fibre; because those 

 of the weeping ash, particularly, are as rigid as if they 

 grew upright. Grafts of these grovelling branches 

 continue, though their seeds do not transfer, the 

 deformity. 



Climbing or winding stems. A laxity of stem 

 which would prove injurious to the maturation of the 

 plant, is counteracted by their power of supporting 

 themselves in the air by twisting round any other 



