2132 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART II [. 



necessary. When rare kinds are sown in pots, if the surface of the soil is 

 kept 1 in. below the rim of the pot, the pot may be covered with a pane of 

 glass, and the seeds will come up with certainty and vigour. Traps ought to 

 be set for mice, which are great devourers of the seeds of the yibietinae. In 

 very dry weather the beds should be watered in the evenings ; but in this 

 case it becomes doubly necessary to shade them in the day time ; because 

 in proportion to the rapidity of the germination of the seeds are they 

 liable to be scorched by the sun. The precaution of shading is much less 

 necessary in Scotland, than in England, or on the Continent ; and, though it 

 requires to be regularly practised in the Goldworth Nursery, in Surrey, yet we 

 believe it is altogether neglected in the nurseries in the neighbourhood of 

 Aberdeen, where more plants of the Scotch pine and larch are, we believe, 

 raised, than in any other nurseries in the world. The seeds of the greater 

 part of the ^ibietinae come up in from 30 to 50 days. Those of P. Pinea 

 have been known to come up in 28 days ; though some of this species often 

 do not come up till the second year, and seeds of P. Pinaster often not till 

 the third year. Great care must be taken, when the seeds are coming through 

 the ground, to raise sufficiently above them the material employed in shading 

 the beds, and also to remove it by degrees. The young plants, in most of 

 the species, grow slowly the first two or three years ; but some few, such as the 

 Scotch pine and the larch, grow with comparative rapidity ; and all of them 

 grow most rapidly between their fifth and their tenth years. 



Culture. The pine and fir tribe do not, in general, succeed so well when 

 transplanted as the broad-leaved trees ; for which reason, most of the 

 sorts planted for ornament, such as the cedar, stone pine, Weymouth pine, 

 Siberian pine, &c., should always be kept by the nurserymen in pots. The 

 Scotch pine, the larch, the spruce, the silver and balm of Gilead firs, the Corsi- 

 can pine, and the Weymouth pine, may be transplanted into nursery lines, from 

 the seed-bed, in the second year ; and, after remaining one year in these lines, 

 they may be removed to where they are finally to remain. Very few species 

 can be kept with advantage for a longer period in the nursery than 3 years ; 

 viz. two in the seed-bed, and one transplanted. The species which may be 

 kept longest, and afterwards transplanted with safety, is the common spruce, 

 on account of the concentration of its roots, and its very numerous fibres. 

 The worst species for transplanting is the pinaster ; because it has more of 

 a taproot than any other of the ilbietinae. In transplanting all the species 

 to where tiiey are finally to remain, attention should be paid not to plant 

 them too deep ; and to have a pit sufficiently large to admit of spreading out 

 the roots in every direction. This spreading out of the roots is more espe- 

 cially necessary in the case of plants that have been kept for years in pots, 

 and that have not naturally taproots; for, when it is neglected, the plants are 

 often many years before they become firmly established and grow vigorously. 

 The reason of this is easily explained. The roots of a tree, when confined in 

 a pot, may be compared to the head of a tree which has been for several years 

 confined and clipped into some regular shape, so as to present an exterior 

 surface of spray and leaves, without any one shoot being stronger than another. 

 Hence, when the head of such a tree is left to itself, a smaller or greater 

 number of years will elapse before a leading shoot, or one or two leading 

 shoots, are produced ; and till that is the case, and the sap, in consequence, is 

 diverted into main channels, instead of being equally distributed over the sur- 

 face of the bush, no vigorous growth can take place. In like manner, the 

 matted roots of a plant which has been a long time kept in a [)ot, when they 

 are not spread out in transplanting, will be some years before they throw out 

 leading or main roots, without which the part of the tree under ground can 

 no more grow vigorously, than the part above ground can grow vigorously 

 without main branches. Tiie proper time for transplanting the yfbietinae is, 

 as in the case of all other trees, when the sap is in a comparatively dormant 

 state, which is between the end of autumn and the beginning of spring; but, 

 when the {)lants are of any size, care must be taken to perform the operation 



