64 



A DOUBLE TEEE. 



Chap. IV. 



if it had been grafted upon it ; indeed, some Chi- 

 nese in a neighbouring village, to whom the tree 

 was well known, did not hesitate to express their 

 belief that such had been the case, but I need 

 scarcely say this was out of the question. Upon 

 a close examination of the point of apparent union, 

 I found that, although the part between stock and 

 graft, if I may use the expression, was completely 

 filled up, yet there was no union such as we see 

 in grafted trees. There could then be only one 

 way of accounting for the appearance which these 

 two trees presented, and which is pretty well 

 shown in a drawing taken by a Chinese artist. 

 The photinia was no doubt rooted in the ground, 

 and had 12 feet of its stem cased in the decayed 

 trunk of the juniper. The apparent union of the 

 trees was so complete, that nothing could be seen 

 of this arrangement ; but upon tapping the lower 

 part of the trunk it sounded hollow, and was no 

 doubt decayed in the centre, although healthy 

 enough outside. 



Upon showing the accompanying sketch to a 

 learned Chinese, the teacher of Mr. Meadows, 

 at Ningpo, he, like the villagers, fully believed 

 the photinia had been grafted upon the juniper ; 

 • and further, he informed me it was a common 

 thing in the country to graft the Yang-mae 

 {Myrica sp., a fine Chinese fruit-tree) upon 

 Pinus sinensis^ and that by so doing the fruit of 

 the Yang-mae became much larger and finer in 

 flavour. Having been engaged in procuring some 



