THE APPLE. 



307 



which are made to perform a variety of absurd 

 movements, by the agency of mice confined with- 

 in them. Besides the Apple, the Orange and 

 other kinds of fruit-trees are propagated in this 

 way ; and fine, that is, stunted and gnarled 

 specimens fetch a high price. They are said to 

 live from two to three hundred years, never much 

 exceeding a foot in height, and producing annu- 

 ally from twenty to thirty large Apples. Several 

 forest trees are treated in the same manner, par- 

 ticularly the Elm. 



There formerly grev/, on the eastern roof of 

 the old Abbey Church of Romsey, Hampshire, 

 a tree w^hich regularly produced two kinds of 

 Apples. How it came to grow in this place is 

 not known. About a dozen years since, it being 

 found that its roots were penetrating the stone- 

 work, and consequently were materially injuring 

 the roof, it was destroyed. 



The insects which select the Apple-tree for 

 the food of themselves and their young are ex- 

 ceedingly numerous. Some of these, Loopers 

 (so called from their bringing forward their hind- 

 most pair of feet in vralking till they are close to 

 the fore-feet, and so making with their bodies a 

 bow or loop), lay their eggs on the twigs nearest 

 to the summit of the tree, to which they cement 

 them so firmly, that no amount of rain washes 

 them off", nor does the severest winter destroy 

 their vitality. As soon as the fiower and leaf- 

 buds begin to expand, the young caterpillars 

 burst from their shells, and commence the work 

 of destruction, by eating their way into the buds, 

 where they find both shelter and sustenance. 

 They prefer at first the delicate food aflforded by 



