Actually, the Orange Tree Illusion, created, perfected, or simply made famous by Robert Houdin, was a real contemporary trick. Only that, to the best of my understanding, it was presented as a fully formed "animatronic" tree that simply "bloomed" orange blossoms and then slowly revealed fruit hidden by the "leafs" of the tree. There was never an actual orange tree that grew from a seedling into a fully formed orange tree in thirty seconds. The butterflies and the handkerchief were also a common part of the trick. Those, however, were real; incredibly well trained butterflies (occasionally moths were used as the butterflies eventually unionized and had significant vacation time, dental and health coverage, paid pupa leave, and were--by union rules--only allowed to work five days a week and no more than two shows a day....)
something terribly clever.
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