How Do Trees Grow?—We answer—By 
lateral buds or branches. By the force of 
heat and light the most vigorous of the 
branches gradually, and of course impercept¬ 
ibly, is drawn up to take its place directly 
over the main and original trunk, and nature 
has so ordained it that this “leader” will 
cover that original trunk as smoothly as the 
most skillful artisan could “weld” two pie¬ 
ces of iron ! By way of parenthesis wo 
would say that the branches of trees grow 
the some way that the trunk docs. 
We were “encountered” with the “form¬ 
idable” question, “How, then, if your theo¬ 
ry be true, do trees attain such hights with¬ 
out a limb or scar for many feet ?” The 
answer is simplo and reasonable. The trees 
of our own State, and especially of Califor¬ 
nia, of the pine or fir variety,, have been 
growing for centuries. Bv the action of 
snow, frost, rain, wind, &tv, and for other 
natural causes, tho lower limbs have been 
cut off or destroyed ; thus leaving a naked 
trunk many feet in length. 
To use a homely Illustration in showing 
“How Trees Grow,” let us say that they 
grow like a man climbs a perpendicular rope, 
hand over hand, lateral over lateral, until 
the tree has no further strength or substance 
about its roots to feed the further growth. 
If any other theory can ho reasonably shown 
to be true, then lot the world know it. 
Stamford, Ky. Hunky T. Harris. 
carried thither on the back of mules only on 
account of its lightness. In Mexico, in the 
South of Europe, the North of Africa, and 
especially on the Canary Islands, the Opuntia, 
the common Prickly Pear of Texas and Mexi¬ 
co, is effectually employed for hedges, which, 
by their thorns present a formidable barrier 
to every intruder. For medicinal purposes, 
also, both the fleshy stem and the fruit is 
frequently used by American and Mexican 
physicians. 
In counting up th* various good qualities 
of this plant, we must not omit to mention 
the fact that it is the Opuntia coccinelltfcra 
upon which that precious little parasite, the 
Cochineal (Coccus cacti), lives. In Brazil, 
Spain and Corsica, but principally in Mexico, 
around Oascaca, Tlascala and Guanaxato, 
are extensive plantations called Nopaleras, 
on which the Opuntias (Napa)) are cultivated 
for the production of the Cochineal, which 
gives us the carmine. The Cochineal intro¬ 
duced ou the Canary Islands in t he year 1833 
permitted in 1850 an export of this veiy light 
article Of 1,300,000 pounds, at *1.50 per pound ! 
One more fact might be worth noticing— 
that is, the considerable amount of oxalic 
acid contained in and produced from the 
stem of this vegetable. In the Peruvian and 
the Old Man Cactus is 85 per cent, oxalic 
lime. 
This fragmentary review may suffice to 
explain tho groat and general interest this 
plant has deservedly found with the Natural¬ 
ist, the Economist and, on account of its 
strangely ugly forms and its apparently ab¬ 
normal organization, with the Natural 
Philosopher. f. w. P. 
HOW TREES GROW 
THE CACTUS, 
I was asked recently to decide a mooted 
question—namely, “How Do Trees Grow ) ’ 
Does the trunk grow upward in the same 
wav that a child grows to its full stature J I 
found that the persons making tho inquiry, 
with perhaps ouc exception, land even that 
one doubted my theory), believed that a tree 
grows like a child does. You would be sur¬ 
prised to ascertain, on inquiry, how many 
The traveler, when emerging from tne 
tropical forests of Guiana and entering the 
Pampas olT Venezuela, of which Alex, vox 
Humboldt in his “Viewsof Nature,” gives 
us such a vivid and plastic description, finds 
the scenery changed. No rich verdure covers 
the hot, cracked surface of the soil, in the 
crevices of which appear the gloomy forms 
of the Melon-Cactus, armed with frightfully 
threatening thorns. Further up the Andes 
tho ground is almost covered with the pale, 
grayish-green balls of the Mam miliarias, be¬ 
tween which stands the Olil Man (Of reus 
senilis), the gray hairs hanging melancholy 
from its serious head. Descending again 
into the plains of Mexico, where the gigantic 
ruins of the Aztec castles give evidence of a 
remote and vanished culture, the sconci y 
onmn ri lWora him aDcears bald and naked, 
of the Indian lig or Prickly pear, covered 
with dangerously hurtful spines, while all 
around are seen groups of the strange and 
U rrly forms of tiio Fe-liinocactus and small 
Ce. ousts, between which again creep, like 
snakes or some other poisonous reptile, the 
long, dry stems of the large-flowered Cactus 
(Cercus nycticallus). Ln short, on tho whole 
■journey we are accompanied by n family of 
plants —the Cactece —which, in their odd 
forms, seem to abnegate tho principle of 
beauty entirely, and yet. stand forward so 
prominently as to give to the whole region 
its peculiar character. Wc cannot forbear to 
grant it our earnest attention and, as a group 
of plants which bcciii to revolt against the 
laws governing all the vegetable kingdom, 
they certainly deserve our interest to a high 
degree. 
All about these plants is not less wonder¬ 
ful than it is peculiar. Wibh the sole excep¬ 
tion of the genus Peiresliia, none have leaves; 
ARBORICULTURAL NOTES 
SINGULAR INSTANCE OF DIMORPHISM. 
A very remarkable instance of dimorphism 
in Rosa cannahlfolla is recorded by M. Caii- 
riere, in the Revue florticole. M. Carrtere 
states that he possesses some specimens of 
this plant which for many years have uni¬ 
formly presented only the characteristics of 
the variety Smooth, shining bark, linear- 
elliptical, dark green, finely-toothed, almost 
smooth leaflets; and double, or nearly double, 
flowers loss than two Inches in diameter, 
with small, narrow petals, irregularly-slashed 
or cut ou the margin and of a yellowish- 
white or sulphur color, somewhat resembling 
that of the Bauksian Rose. This year, how¬ 
ever, M. Carriers was surprised to find that 
two of his plants (vigorous specimens) had 
each produced a branch bearing an abnormal 
shoot, as represented in tho accompanying 
illustration. This shoot, which is shown on 
the left-hand side of the figure, was covered 
with strong, hooked prickles, at the base of 
each of which was a broad swelling in the 
AN INARCHED ASH. 
persons believe in this false theory. Even 
men of fine culture in many things, look up¬ 
on it as a “ matter of course.” 
I illustrated to my friends the tree theory 
of growth by the following reference to 
facts, to witObserve, if you will, the mime 
cut upon a tree at a date fifty or more years 
ago. Is that, name and date any higher up 
the trunk than it was when cut ? Surely not. 
The tree was, perhaps, when the name was 
cut, only twenty feet high and a foot in di¬ 
ameter.' Now, however, it is a hundred feet 
high and three feet in diameter; yet the 
name is not an inch higher from tho ground 
than it was when cut into the bark. 
Again:—Bore a hole into a tree, drive in a 
peg, and in a century the peg will be precise- 
for what is commonly supposed to be, or is 
called a leaf with the Cactus alatus or 
Opuntic, is nothing but a flattened stem or 
trunk, which is more or less fleshy, covered 
with a leathery skin, and in those places 
where the leaves, if there were any, would 
be, we find bundles of hair, spines or thorns. 
Few families of plants are confined to so nar¬ 
row a space oil the surface of the eai tlx as the 
Cactece. All of them are, perhaps without a 
single exception, natives of that portion of 
America which is situated between 10= S. 
L. an 1 ID 3 N. L. All like a dry, sandy soil, 
expo.sed to the full rays ol the suu, w.iioii 
fact strangely contrasts with the llesliy tex¬ 
ture of the trunk, tilled with a watery and 
not disagreeable subacid juice. This pe¬ 
culiarity renders them invaluable to the 
thirsty, languishing traveler, aud Bernadin 
de Sr. Pierre very appropriately called 
ihom “ The sorimrs of the desert.” When in 
THE MIRABELLE HATIVE PLUM 
Thomas Rivers & Son say in Garden: 
This has not been grown much iu England, 
principally because it is very delicate as 
regards flowering and is usually destroyed by 
spring frosts ; it is very useful for preserving, 
aud in the hands of French confectioners it 
is delicious. We have grown the sort for 
many years, and, as a rule, wo gather a 
crop about once in live years. In most gar¬ 
dens this paucity is fatal to (Its cultivation. 
As an eating plum it is sweet and good ; but 
it ripens at, a tune when fruit is abundant, 
and we do not, from our experience, think 
that it is ever likely to be popular. The 
Mirabelle de Metz, which ripens later, is 
better as a preserve than the Mirabelle 
POMOLOGICAL GOSSIP. 
Originating New Fruit.— President Wil¬ 
der in an address before she Massachusetts 
Hort. Soc. said, “ I would rather be the : man 
who shall originate a luscious trait, suited to 
cultivation throughrat our land, of Which 
successive generations shall partake, long 
after T shall bo consigned to tho bosom of 
mother earth, than to wear the crown of tho 
proudest conqueror who has ever triumphed 
over his fellow men.” 
Meachem Sweet Apple— In Rural New- 
Yorker, Sept. <>, page 158, we copied a de¬ 
scription of au apple under the above name 
from the Michigan Farmer. Charles Down- 
xy calls our attention to the fact, that in the 
second revised edition of Downing’s Fruits 
of America, on page 883, “Meachcm Sweet” 
is described as a synonym of Munson Sweet; 
and that “Rag” apple should te Ray. 
Picquet Peach.— S. P. S., asks where trees 
of this variety can be obtained. We cannot 
give the information. Can opr advertisers 
or readers ? 
ly the same distance from the ground as 
when first driven in. Were the theory of 
my friends true the orchardist would find, hi 
the course of a few years, that his fruit was 
out of his reach, except by immensely loug 
ladders, or by those who could climb like 
sailors. 
Observe again, a tree which you may, or 
have, planted, and which has a fork at a cer¬ 
tain distance from the ground. Will you 
find that the fork is elevated beyond its orig¬ 
inal bight i Most assuredly not! W hat, 
then, do you who hold a different theory, de¬ 
sire to convince you^-of the facts we have 
here given ? If you can explain the upward 
growth of trees in any other way t.Ue scien¬ 
tific world would glad t,Q hear it) 
bark; its leaflets were of a broacuy-ovai, 
rounded shape, of a grayish-green color, 
roughly wrinkled, and margined with broad 
crenate teeth; the flowers which bore it were 
siuglc, nearly three inches in diametsr, with 
broadly-oval, pure white petals, which were 
wedge-shaped, and truncate and broadly-cut 
or scalloped at the apex. M. CarrieRE con¬ 
siders this is an instance of reversion or atav¬ 
ism, as the characteristics of the abnormal 
shoot are precisely those of Rosa ulba, of 
