IT appears that the Chinese are not satisfied with the artificial dwarfing of their women's feet, but have carried their experiments into the vegetable kingdom.  There is now on exhibition at the Acclimatization Gardens in the Bois de Boulogne, Paris, a dwarf-tree about two feet in height, with a trunk the thickness of a man's finger, and roots that would hardly fill the palm of the hand; and yet this tree is an oak one hundred years old.  The dwarfing was effected by artificial means, and is the result of continued experiment in this grotesque branch of horticulture. 1 

1      Appletons' journal: a magazine of general literature, Volume 13, Issue: 323, May 29, 1875,  in the "Science, Invention, Discovery" section, third paragraph from the end, pg. 702.  It is not known if this tree was brought in for or at least shown at the Paris Exposition of 1878.