57 



every way from one another : which trench was three feet 

 deep, and as many broad, or more, with a bank of earth 

 raised round the stem, hke the seats used by the peasants in 

 Campania ; a judicious contrivance, both for supporting the 

 tree, and protecting it from the effects of drought, during the 

 first season after removal. Witch Hazels, he also adds, were 

 transferred in the same manner, and indiscriminately from 

 the nursery-ground, and from the open forest.* 



The same writer, as well as Theophrastus, mentions, that 

 it was a common practice to re-establish large trees, and par- 

 ticularly the Platanus, that had been blown down, and had 

 their roots torn up, by the violence of the wind ; and that 

 this was effected, by skilfully replanting them, so as that 

 the lacerated parts completely knit again and revived.! More- 

 over, Pliny speaks of a fir-tree, which, before it was trans- 

 planted, had a taproot no less than eight cubits long, that is, 

 reckoning from the place, at which it was broken off in the 

 taking up, but that a considerable part of it still remained 

 in the ground. This extraordinary circumstance respecting 

 the fir he seems to have taken from Theophrastus, who 

 states it as a fact known in his time respecting the pitch-pine, 

 and entitled to credit.! 



Cato, Varro, and Columella all speak of the transplanta- 

 tion of trees of various sizes. The younger Seneca informs 

 us, in one of his letters, written from the villa of Scipio 

 Africanus, but then belonging to an intelligent friend of his 

 own, that he had there learned the method of successfully 

 removing an entire orchard of old trees, as practised by the 

 latter ; that the trees, after the third and fourth year, pro- 

 duced an abundant crop of fruit, with the fairest promise of 

 thriving luxuriantly, and continuing their shade to a late 

 period. This, he adds, was an interesting lesson for him, 



* Note IV. 



t Hist. Nat. L. XVI. 31. Theophrast. Hist. Plant. L. IV. 19. 



\ Hist. Plant. L. II. 7. 



8 



