Dwarfed Trees

Dwarfed Trees, growing in flower-pots, are a characteristic ornament in Chinese and Japanese houses and gardens, and the production of them is an art which has been carried to great perfection. It depends on the prevention of an abundant flow of sap, so that whilst the tree is kept living and healthful, vegetation does not go on with its natural activity. The trees are planted in shallow and narrow flower-pots; care is taken that their roots never pass into the ground beneath; they are very sparingly supplied with water; their strongest and leading shoots are pinched off, and their branches are bent and twisted in various ways. A very extraordinary dwarfing is the result of these and other such processes; and the dwarfed trees not unfrequently abound in flowers and fruit.