60 Vegetable Organography and Physiology. 



until its body was in a parallel line with the earth. The roots 

 on the opposite side, having obtained a firmer hold, afforded suffi- 

 cient nourishment to sustain the plant ; although they could not, 

 alone, retain it in its vertical position. In this condition of things, 

 the tree, as if "conscious of its wants," adopted (if the term may 

 be used) an ingenious process, in order to regain its former upright 

 position. One of the most vigorous of the detached roots, sent 

 out a branch from its side, which passing round a projection of 

 the rock, again united with the parent stalk, and thus formed a 

 perfect loop around this projection, which gave to the root an 

 immovable attachment. The tree now began to recover from its 

 bent position. Obeying the natural tendency of all plants to 

 grow erect ; and sustained by this root, which increased with 

 unwonted vigor, in a few years, it had entirely regained its ver- 

 tical position ; elevated, as no one could doubt, who saw it, by 

 the aid of ihe root which had formed this singular attachment. 

 But this was not the ouXy power exhibited by this remarkable tree. 

 After its elevation it flourished vigorously for several years. Some 

 of its roots had traced the sloping side of the rock to the earth, 

 and were buried in the soil below. Others, having imbedded 

 themselves in its furrows, had completely filled these crevices with 

 vegetable matter. The tree still continuing to grow, concentric 

 layers of vegetable matter were annually deposited between the 

 alburnum and liber, until by the force of vegetable growth alone, 

 the rock was split, from top to bottom, into three nearly equal di- 

 visions, and branches of the roots were soon found, extending 

 down, through the divisions into the earth below. On visiting 

 the tree, a few months since, to take a drawing of it, we found 

 that it had attained an altitude of fifty feet, and was four and a 

 half feet in circumference at its base. Having overcome obsta- 

 cles which do not ordinarily impede vegetable growth, by the 

 manifestation of a principle, and a power, not ordinarily developed 

 in vegetation, it was towering upwards, and stretching its branch- 

 es abroad as if ambitious to take its place among the loftiest trees 

 of the forest. 



As no trace of a nervous system has, as yet, been discovered 

 in vegetables, the spontaneous motions which they occasionally 

 exhibit, and the various changes produced by their functions, are 

 generally referred, by naturahsts, to the organic sensibility, or 



