St. Nicholas/Volume 32/Number 3/Nature and Science/Grew from a Seed
An Arm-chair that Grew from a Seed.
The Arm-chair that Grew from a Seed
The accompanying photograph illustrates a chair that grew from a seed. This curious piece of furniture was discovered in a Korean garden by the captain of a trading-vessel, who purchased it and brought it to America. It is now in the private collection of Mr. T. P. Lukens in Pasadena, California.
The Korean who owned the garden planted the seed of a gingko-tree. When the seed sprouted and grew, the clever Korean trained each twig and branch. He bound them into the desired shape with strong ropes, and the huge knots shown in the photograph are the result of this discipline. He worked with great patience, attending to his task as a mother watches and cares for her child. At the end of twenty years the chair was well formed. Then he chopped it from the main branches on which it had grown in curious gnarled forms during its years of training.
The chair is three feet four inches in height and twenty-four inches in width. The wood, which is as hard as oak, is golden brown in color, and since the bark has been removed has taken on a fine polish, Some of the knots that formed between the binding ropes are twenty-one inches in diameter. Though the chair has a lumpy appearance, it is fairly comfortable.
Curiosities in canes and various forms of rustic woodwork are often made by wood-choppers, basket-makers, and others by bending, tying, and girdling small trees or shrubs.