November 10, 18C3. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTXTIIE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



371 



"Orchard-House" lie tlius describes his practice: — "Take 

 out a portion of ths soil, 5 or 6 inches in depth, and about 

 4 inches in mdth, all round the side of the pot, leaving the 

 central mass of roots undisturbed. A portion of the mould 

 may, however, be picked out from among the mass of iibres 

 with advantage, as fresh food can do them no harm," &c. 

 Now, would so practical a cultivator destroy annually the 

 poults of the fibres if he knew that Nature demanded their 

 preservation? He must have known the contrary, and so 

 anticipated Nature by helping her to do at once what she 

 would have done herself from the fall of the leaf to the com- 

 mencement of growth in the ensuing spring. But Mr. Rivers 

 is careful to preserve the woody portion of the fibres : it is 

 from these, which may not improperly be termed ripened 

 roots, that the fibres are emitted in the spring. Neither 

 does he destroy the fleshy roots, from which the fibres on 

 their first formation are emitted, but he leaves them entbe 

 or undistui'bed at the bottom of the pots, and he rams the 

 fresh soU, so that no root can run easily in it without 

 emitting fibres. The same is done with Strawberries in 

 pots for forcing, the olyect in both cases being to prevent 

 the fleshy roots from extending, and thus to favour the 

 production of fibres. Unless the soil in a Strawberry-pot is 

 pressed very fii-m, the fleshy roots that strike from the root 

 pass through the soil and out at the pot-bottom without 

 emitting so much as a single fibre on the way. If, however, 

 the roots are arrested in their journey by coming into con- 

 tact with the sides of the pot, fibres are emitted, but only 

 there; whereas the object is to GU the whole of the soil 

 with fibres, and thus give the plant as many mouths in a 

 six-inch pot as it would have when planted out and having 

 roots penetrating to 2 feet deep. 



The same appears again with any plant under pot-culture. 

 An annual potting and a few after-shifts are aU that is 

 necessary to supply the wants of a plant. The annual pot- 

 ting is accompanied l)y a disrooting and an addition of fi'esh 

 <!ompost. Geraniuin-gTowers disroot so much annually as 

 to necessitate the i^lacing of the plant in a smaller pot. 

 They one and all do precisely the same as Nature herself 

 would do were she left alone. They limi t root-action to a 

 given space, and supply the wants of the roots in that space, 

 obviating the necessity of their having to run about in quest 

 of nutriment. In nature it is the reverse. The fibres are 

 formed at or near the stem in the early stages of a plant's 

 development ; but after a time they are present at the ex- 

 tremities of the main roots, and where are those fibres that 

 were formed near the stem of the plant ? Have they become 

 large roots with numberless fibres at their extremities ? No, 

 the large roots are but few in number ; but had the fibres 

 extended proportionately with the increase of the head, they 

 would have been a multitudinous cluster of large roots 

 extending fr-om the stem in all directions. As it is, however, 

 the fibres have not become large roots nor are present in 

 the soil. The head has extended and shut out the rains from 

 them ; their part in the vegetable economy is accomplished, 

 and they perish. But Nature does her work gradually, and 

 fresh fibres are formed ia other directions simultaneously 

 with the decay of those first produced and now become 

 useless. 



X shall not pursue the periodical decay of the smaller fibres 

 any fui'ther, for the materials at my disposal are so numer- 

 ous that to recite all would extend this communication too 

 much : but I must state that bulbs lose their roots annually, 

 which are simply fleshy roots, identical with the fibres of 

 woody roots which decay periodically, though very fax from 

 annually. If the roots of a Peach or Vine be examined 

 after the leaves have attained their full size, a quantity of 

 dead fibres will be seen, and from almost every division of 

 the fibres new spongioles will be found either emitted or 

 in com-se of being produced, evidently destined to supply 

 the place of the decayed. Mark, it is the small fieshy 

 fibres that decay, and not the wiry woody part. There 

 are exceptions to all rules, and tree Ferns appear not 

 to lose the extremities of the root except from accident. 

 They always have some dead roots, but what I mean is that 

 new roots are emitted direct from the stem, and travel a 

 great distance without losing any part of their extremities, 

 and when the point dies the root does so entirely, new roots 

 .striking out direct from the stem to supply its place. Boots 

 of aU kinds have a periodical discarding of some of their 



parts ; in a bulb it is the whole, in a tree the fieshy parts 

 of the fibres, and herbaceous plants change them entirely 

 throughout thefr whole length. An evergreen, even, under- 

 goes the same process, but more continuously than periodi- 

 cally. 



The dying-back of the fibres is necessary to the existence 

 of the plant, for if they continued to grow year after year 

 without throwing oft' any of their parts, the roots would 

 become larger than the "head, whereas they are on an 

 average only one quarter of its size and weight. Another 

 reason is, that if the fibres passed but once through the soil 

 in which they are situated, they would leave a quantity of 

 unexplored matter behind them, and when once out of it 

 they could not return to collect the food it contained. But 

 by renewing the fibres the soU is penetrated in all directions, 

 and all the elements essential to the development of the plant 

 are pretty much exhausted, so that a plant does not succeed 

 well on the same ground after the growth of another of the 

 same species. 



Before leaving fibres allow me to add a little evidence in 

 support of my opinion — " Fibres are the chief agents in the 

 formation of fruit-buds or a plant's productiveness." Pre- 

 suming that we have two fruit trees, both seedlings, and we 

 allow one to grow fr'eely mthout any curbing or checking of 

 its development ; and suppose we treat the other in an oppo- 

 site manner, transplant it annually, and instead of letting 

 the roots run where they wiU, curtail or limit thefr action : 

 the one, as we all know, will become a large tree and the 

 other a dwarf; the one is barren and the other fi-uitftd; the 

 one has roots the thickness of a finger, but the other has 

 them smaller than a grass stalk. Both, however, have fibres, 

 but in the tree left to Nature these can be counted, whilst in 

 the other they are numberless. But the fibres, I maybe 

 told, are due to transplantation. Certainly ti-ansplanting 

 increases the fibres ; a plant that had one spongiole before 

 transplanting will have fifty in the following season, and 

 these are unlike such as would be produced by the untrans- 

 planted plants— they are smaller, have shorter divisions or 

 branch more, and coUeot food slowly, whereas, in the other 

 case they collect nutriment rapidly, and this having a 

 straight channel to run in is transmitted to the stem and 

 leaves with greater rapidity, and the growths made are 

 strong and anything but branching — they have the character 

 of the root. But the transplanted subject makes short 

 growths, is stunted, having also the character of the root. 



To recapitulate : Free root-action induces free growth and 

 unproductiveness ; transplantation promotes the production 

 of fibres, fibres create stunted growth, and stunted growth 

 gives bloom-buds. In this way we have Apple, Pear, 

 Plum, and Cherry trees the size of Eose bushes, producing 

 fi-vut equally fine and large with those gi-own on large 

 orchard trees that are years before they come into bearing. 

 The former are made to produce fibres by annual or biennial 

 transplantation, but the latter have theii- fr-eedom and make 

 growth in proportion to the food taken up by the roots. 

 The aim of a plant is to perpetuate its species, and it has 

 the power of adapting itself to circumstances. If its seeds 

 are di-opped in a rich soil it is longer before it produces 

 seeds, and if they are placed in poor ground it grows slowly, 

 has innumerable fibres penetrating through the soU, and 

 produces seeds in half the time and when half the height of 

 its congener. There are more fibres on the latter than the 

 former, and fibres are the cause of fruit-buds being formed. 

 Further evidence is forthcoming in the case of a luxuriant- 

 gi-owing tree and barren. Pruning and evei-y other means 

 avail nothing to overcome its unproductiveness. Koot- 

 pruning, however, is resorted to ; the straight and broad 

 channels are made crooked by the emission of fibres, and 

 the ban-en tree becomes fruitful. Again, we have two 

 plants (fruit trees) and wish to force both, but we will plunge 

 one in bottom heat and keep the atmosphere cool for a fort- 

 night or until root-action commence; the other we keep 

 cool during that time, when we place it in the same atmo- 

 sphere with the other, with or without bottom heat. At this 

 stage the one has a quantity of newly formed fleshy roots 

 (according to its kind), which have reached the sides of the 

 pot, and the presence of which the gardener hails with 

 delight, but the other has no roots beyond those of the 

 previous year. They both commence growing, and the fii^t 

 is strong, and the growth close-jointed but not grosa; the 



