THE word pierced makes the difference between an impossibility and a fact which is not uncommon in nature. The thorn mentioned in your last impression by Mr. Murphy has grown between two beech stems, which were so close that from their annual increase they grew together, and in so doing they enclosed the thorn, which could no more have pierced the beech than it could have pierced a block of marble. If young trees are twisted together they will grow together. Years ago I placed a bar of iron in an interstice between two stems so twisted, in another interstice below it I placed a part of the drag-chain of a waggon. According to Mr. Murphy the two iron appendages â have grown right through the middle of the trunks of the two beeches.â They are at least as firmly fixed as if they had done so.