"Visit to the Fati Gardens" by Rev. H. Hickok (1849) includes these four paragraphs on the second page:
The dwarfed fruit and other trees constitute
much of the attraction of Chinese gardens. This is an art of the
florist which is much practiced, and is highly esteemed. These
present to the stranger a great novelty. Here are growing, in
jars, forest trees not more than two feet high, which have all the
appearance of most venerable age. When it is desired to have a
dwarf fruit tree, a branch full of blossoms is girdled, and rich loam
is then bound about the branch on the naked wood; this is kept moist,
and when the radicles have shot out into the soil, and the fruit is
ripe, the branch is severed from the tree and placed in a shallow pot;
and then, with trimming, it becomes a miniature tree, laden with fruit.
Ancient forest trees, in miniature, however,
display the most ingenuity. The elm is generally used for this
purpose, though not always. After the limb is girdled, and the
bare wood covered with earth, which is bound on with matting, and kept
always moist, the twigs are then made to grow to answer their design by
fastening them in proper positions with bits of twine. After the
branch is severed from the tree, and planted to become the trunk of the
little tree, its branches are then prepared by bending, cutting,
burning [sic], and grafting, to resemble
the old tree of the forest. The bark is smeared with some sweet
substance, which attracts the ants, so that a bark is produced, which
looks as if it had stood the sun and storms of a century. To
assist the dwarfing, a scant supply of earth and water is given to the
roots, which also causes the leaves soon to assume a small size.
To complete the illusion, miniature rocks, covered with moss, lie
scattered about the roots of the ancient trees.
The small, artificial precipices, with the
water falling over them, also aid in setting off the scene. These
are made of angular pieces of granite, cemented together in imitation
of Nature's most extensive cataracts. With the little old trees
artfully arranged about them, these cascades make a pleasing part of
the garden scenery.
Another curiosity to us was the
numerous "vegetable animals" which were everywhere presented to
view. The Chinese gardener has great skill in training certain
species of shrubs to resemble deer, elephants, oxen, fish, pagodas, and
other objects of nature and art. These, to the stranger, are
interesting objects, found in all Chinese gardens. They are not
mere thick shrubs, sheared off to certain patterns, like a border of
box, or a hedge row; but they are hollow, and the vine-like branches
and tendrils are taught to grow so as to picture to the eye, in fine
proportions, the design of the artist. 1 |