of the mould, exhibiting flowers nearly as large as a full-blown rose, and a stem measuring two, and sometimes three, inches in circumference." (Hort. Trans., iii. 128.)

The plan of continually sinking the stem with every succeeding potting is useful to the Balsam, because it puts forth roots in abundance from its stem; and to all plants having the same property, the same practice is desirable: but not to others, which, if their stems do not root as fast as they are buried, will suffer injury by the sinking.

It is by paying constant attention to the shifting of the growing plant, by the employment of a very rich stimulating soil, and by a thorough knowledge of the kind of atmosphere which suits them best, that have been obtained those magnificent Pelargoniums, Cockscombs, Balsams, and similar flowers, which have so often and so justly excited the admiration of even the most experienced gardeners.

CHAP. XVI.

OF TRANSPLANTING.

As soon as man attempted to beautify his resi

dence with trees

planted round it, he would na

turally obtain them from the forest; and he then would find that, of many that he removed, all or some at least would die: if however he persevered, he would at last discover that while constant failure attended his efforts at one time, comparative success would crown them at another; and he would thus be led to investigate, according to his skill, the causes of success and failure. Out of this would grow in time the art of transplanting, among the most important business of the gardener.

I fear, however, it is too generally practised as an empirical art, without sufficient attention being paid to the principles on which its success or failure depend; at least, one hardly knows how to draw any other conclusion from the opposite opinions held by planters, the dogmatical manner in which they are too often expressed, and the obscure and unintelligible phraseology of what are called explanations of the practice by amateurs, to whom it is not necessary to allude more particularly. If there is any one part of the art of Horticulture in which post hoc has been mistaken for propter hoc more commonly than another, it is surely in what concerns transplantation.* And

It is scarcely necessary to say that these remarks do not, in any way, apply to Mr. Macnab's Hints on the Planting and general Treatment of Hardy Evergreens in the Climate of Scotland; an excellent treatise, which it it impossible to recommend too strongly to the attention of the planter.

yet the rationale is simple enough; if we do not labour to render it confused by imaginary refine

ments.

When a plant is taken out of the ground for transplanting, its roots are necessarily more or less injured in the process, and consequently it is less able to support the stem than it was before the mutilation took place; its loss of this power will also be in proportion to the extent of the mutilation, which may be carried so far as to amount to destruction.

But the importance of their roots to plants is not alike at all seasons; in the summer, when there is the greatest demand upon them in consequence of the perspiration of the foliage (70., &c.), they are most essential; in winter, when the leaves have fallen, they are comparatively unimportant, as is evident from a very common case. Let a limb of a tree be felled in full leaf in June; its foliage will presently wither, the bark will shrivel and dry up, and the whole will speedily perish; but, if a similar limb is lopped in November, when its foliage has naturally fallen off, it will exhibit no sign of death during winter, nor till the return of spring, when it may make a dying effort to recover; but the means it takes to do so, namely, the emission of leaves, only accelerates its end.

These two propositions really include all the most essential parts of the theory of transplant

ation, as will presently be seen: it is necessary, however, that they should be applied in some detail; for which purpose it will be convenient to consider, first, the season, and, secondly, the manner, in which transplanting can be best effected.

*

It is the powerful perspiratory action of the leaves of deciduous trees which renders transplanting them in a growing state so difficult, that for practical purposes it may be called impossible; for the operation is necessarily attended by a mutilation of the roots which feed the leaves. At no period, then, can the operation be performed if such plants are growing. Even if the buds are only pushing, the process should be avoided, because immediately after that period the demand upon the roots is greatest; for although in consequence of the smallness of the surface of the young leaves the action of perspiration may seem to be feeble, yet the thinness of the newly formed tissue will not enable it to resist the drying action of the atmosphere unless there is a most abundant afflux of sap from the roots. In England, too, the months when buds begin to burst forth are objectionable, not only on account of their dryness (see the tables at page 136.), but of their coldness, which prevents

* Transplanting from garden pots, in which the roots are preserved artificially from injury, may be performed equally well at any time if care is taken, and is, of course, not included in this statement.

the free circulation of sap; and their evil effects are felt not only by the roots through the foliage, but directly, as will be shown hereafter. The season, then, which ought to be chosen is the period that intervenes between the fall of the leaf in autumn and the earliest part of spring, before the sap begins to move and the dry cold winds of that season to prevail. I entirely agree with Mr. Macnab, that the earliest time at which planting can be effected is, upon the whole, the best; a conclusion to which he has come from his extensive practice, in which my own observation of a great deal of planting for the last twenty-five years coincides, and which is, in all respects, conformable to theory. As soon as a plant has shed its leaves it is as much at rest for the season as it will be at any subsequent period, unless it is frozen its torpor, indeed, is greater at that time, because its excitability is completely exhausted by the season of growth, and it has had no time to recover it. If, at that time, a root is wounded, a process of granulation or cicatrisation will commence, just as it does in cuttings (page 210.); and from that granulation, which is a mere developement of the horizontal cellular system (45.), roots will eventually proceed. Now, it is obvious that since roots must be wounded in the process of transplantation, the sooner the wound is made the better, because it has the longer time in which to heal: and there

;.