10 THE HOOTS. 



which they do in conformity with a law universal throughout the 

 Vegetable Kingdom. The fibrous rootlets then become more spreading, 

 and those formed during the earlier life of the tree having fulfilled 

 their functions, die. 



Roots are occasionally emitted from the lowermost branches resting on 

 the ground at or near their extremities, especially when the soil is kept 

 moist by the shade of the branches xobove, or from other causes. A very 

 remarkable instance is described and figured by London. At The Whim, 

 situated on the northern slopes of the Romano Hills in north Peeblesshire 

 at about 1,000 feet elevation, the lower branches of a Norway Spruce 

 growing in the centre of a piece of mossy ground had taken root wherever 

 they had come in contact with the soil, and had formed a double series 

 of young trees in two concentric circles around the parent tree. At the 

 date of the publication of London's "Arboretum" there were upwards of 

 thirty rooted stems surrounding the mother tree.* One of the lower- 

 most branches of a Pinus excelsa, in the gardens of Eastnor Castle, 

 resting on the ground has rooted in a similar manner ; the extremity of 

 the branch has ascended and developed into a stem with branches exactly 

 like the parent tree. At Fota, near Cork, the lower^most branches of 

 a Cryptomeria japonica have emitted roots into the soil below, and have 

 formed erect stems like the parent trunk which is now surrounded by 

 over twenty young trees of various heights, the whole forming a dense 

 copse of Cryptomerias. In the moist climate of Cornwall and the 

 south and west of Ireland, the rooting of the lowermost branches of 

 Cryptomeria japonica, var. elet/an*, when in contact with the ground is 

 quite a common occurrence ; and this rooting has also been observed in 

 various places in Tlmia occidenfaxlis, Cupressus Lawsoniana, 0. macroearpa, 

 in some of the Junipers, the Cedar of Lebanon and in the common Yew. 



The power of forming roots by pieces detached from the parent plant 

 or from "cuttings" is very considerable, but differs much in the different 

 tribes. It appears to exist nearly in the same ratio as that of produc- 

 ing leaf buds ; thus in the Cypress tribe, in which the branchlets 

 ramify repeatedly from the axils of the scale-like leaves, and produce 

 lateral shoots very freely when the leaders are, in garden phraseology, 

 "headed back," cuttings take root very readily when placed in circum- 

 stances favourable for their development. In the Sequoia and Yew 

 tribes the power of rooting from cuttings is almost as great as in the 

 Cypress and its allies. It is much weaker in the Fir and Pine tribe ; 

 some of the Araucarias and the Cunninghamia possess it in a high 

 degree ; the Spruce and Hemlock Firs less so ; it is feeble in the Silver 

 Firs, and wanting, or nearly so, altogether in the true Pines. 



* Arboretum et Fraticetum Britannicum, Vol. IV. p. 2,298. The tree with its progeny 

 here figured and described has since disappeared, but in a plantation about 200 yards south- 

 west from the mansion may be seen many Norway Spruces whose lowermost branches have 

 taken root in the soft damp earth, some with three, four and even more series of young 

 trees around them. To my late excellent correspondent, Mr. Malcolm Dunn, of Dalkeith, 

 who visited The Whim for the express purpose of inspecting these trees, I am indebted 

 for the following particulars respecting them: "The soil in which the Norway Spruces 

 arc growing is a deep peat bog, the surface of Avhich is covered with sphagnum moss, heath, 

 bilberry, etc. The branches of the Spruces become loaded with moss and lichen, and when 

 bent to the ground by their weight, the sphagnum soon covering them, they root freely 

 into the soft bog earth. There are two fairly distinct varieties of the Norway Spruce at 

 The Whim, one with short crowded leaves, and the other with looser, longer ones ; trees 

 with the first named foliage most readily root from the lower branches, while those with 

 the other kind rarely do so." 



