I noticed in the December number of the Monthly, page 369, a communication by Dr. C.

W. Greene, referring to a birch growing out of a chestnut tree. A similar curious instance came under my notice, in England, some fifteen years ago. With a friend of mine, I visited a place called Lucien, in Hertfordshire, about eighteen miles from London, to see, as was said, " the greatest curiosity ever heard tell of," situated in Lucien churchyard. There we saw seven ash and three sycamore trees growing through a tombstone out of a grave. The stone was about twelve feet long, six inches thick, and eight feet wide. The growth of the trees had split the stone in all directions. Some of the trees at that time were seven inches through, and about fifteen feet high. The grave lot was enclosed with an iron fence twelve feet high, and the branches of the trees and some parts of the trunk had grown into the fence in all imaginable shapes and forms. Of course, there is a "true story" connected with the circumstance, as the people of Hertfordshire will strongly affirm. The person buried in this grave was a lady of title. Lady Anne Grimstone, who was buried there somewhere about a hundred years ago. She was an unbeliever in a Supreme Being - in fact, an infidel - and those who doubt it can buy a book, sold by pedlars for six-pence, strongly confirming the horrible story in detail.

This lady asseverated previous to her death that if there be a God or devil, a heaven or hell, she hoped ash and sycamore might grow through her body. No one planted these trees there, and the people religiously believe that to prove to the living the horrible heresy of the dead, the trees came from her body, and the more to attract attention, have grown up through and broken the stone.

Pencoyd, Montgomery Co., Pa.