CURIOSITIES IN TREES.

Auckland Star, Volume 55, Issue 3, 4 January 1924, Page 11

CURIOSITIES IN TREES.

DYEING GROWING TIMBER. On an estate at Tonbridge, in England, there is an avenue of alphabetical trees, planted with alder ash, birch, catalpa, (lavida, elm, fir, and so on, through the j alphabet to yulan and zelkova. In the Weser district, in Germany, there is another fashion in trees which is entirely a commercial one. The trees have a red and blue tint, which is the result of experimenting in dyeing. Each tree is hung with a receptacle containing blue or red colouring. This is conducted through a rubber tube into the roote of the tree. In about a month the colouring matter makes its way through all the branches. The trees die off and are felled, the wood being used for many purposes, but especially for making furniture. At Dunkeld is a rocky crag now I clothed with vegetation, which was planted in a unique way. This once barren rock was too precipitous to allow a man to climb to plant trees. But someone suggested that seed might be lodged there with the help of gunfire. So two o]d muzzle-loading cannons "were filled with seeds, the guns loaded, and then fired at the face of the rock. The canisters burst and released the seeds, which took root and flowered. A beautiful way of commemorating those who fell in the war has been effected in Montreal. Avenues of Eemembrance have been planted, and on each tree is the name of a dead Canadian soldier.