THE FLORAL WOULD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 3I@ 



learned that they bad been well dipped at root and copiously watered 

 when planted. In Guernsey, where the Evergreen Oak is much 

 employed for shelter on the most exposed places, where, in fact, it is 

 often covered with salt spray, they remove large specimens of it 

 with perfect safety at midsummer. If the plant to be removed has 

 a very large head in proportion to the roots, some of its branches are 

 shortened back, but no other precautions are taken to ensure success. 

 A failure is very rare indeed. The damp climate of the island of 

 course contributes mainly to this success ; for no newly-planted tree 

 suffers more from the effects of evaporation from its leaves than the 

 Evergreen Oak. When subjected to a dry atmosphere with a feeble 

 root action, as a recently planted tree would naturally be in our 

 climate, then speedy dissolution from dessication of the tissues would 

 almost certainly follow. Now this evaporation from the leaves and 

 succulent branches of newly-planted trees is the primary cause of 

 their failure, and in proportion as it can be guarded against or 

 compensated for, so will success be found. 



l)eciduous trees when moved, as they must generally be, when 

 the leaf has fallen, are of course not subject to the draining of their 

 juices by evaporation to a like extent — -a condition which gives them 

 in some respects an advantage over evergreens in sustaining the 

 casualties of transplanting. Now nothing favours evaporation so 

 much as a dry moving atmosphere ; as, for instance, during bright 

 windy days in March. From this circumstance that month is deemed, 

 and rightly too, the worst in which to transplant evergreens through- 

 out the year. No one who can possibly avoid it should attempt it 

 then. It is easy to imagine that, from the constant passing away of 

 the fluids of a plant with no means of replenishing them, the 

 individual must soon cease to exist. And in March, too, vegetation 

 is often inactive as at midwinter, which circumstance, coupled with 

 its invariably dry atmosphere, is an additional reason for not planting 

 then. 



When a shrub or tree is transplanted it should be under conditions 

 which will allow it to recommence growth immediately, to enable it, 

 by absorbing at the roots, to counteract the loss of fluid at the 

 leaves. To insure this the plant must be removed before it is 

 completely at rest in the autumn, or after vegetation has commenced 

 in spring. At either of these periods nature immediately sets about 

 repairing any injury which the plant may have received. The roots 

 which are destroyed, and many will inevitably be so, are then 

 replaced by others, tbe work of nutrition goes on, and the natural 

 functions of the plant are resumed. If you examine a shrub that 

 has been transplanted while vegetation was active in autumn, even a 

 law days after its removal, you will perceive the roots covered with 

 myriads of white shining points ; the new rootlets in fact hastening 

 to re-establish the plant before winter sets in and renders the 

 vegetative principle all but inert. Plants require both at root and 

 branch a certain degree of warmth to enable them to fully perform 

 their functions. In autumn the soil retains a considerable amount 

 of heat, and is favourable to the formation of roots. In midwinter 

 this is not apparent, even though the weather should be open, for 



October. 



