205 1 



\- 

 deliberation, or at least the greatest caution, is the truest sav- 

 ing that can be made : for here the well-known adage, Fes- 

 tina lente, is the golden rule which should regulate the 

 process. It is well known to the vegetable anatonnist, who 

 can discern with his microscope the flattened extremities of 

 the capillary rootlets (Capillameyita), how well fitted they 

 are to perform the office of absorption, and that it is to those 

 effective organs chiefly, that plants are indebted for the in- 

 trosusception of their food. Hence, when disbarked or 

 lacerated, or what is worse, cut away, the severe, and often 

 ineffectual efforts made by plants, to restore or replace them. 

 The planter cannot too earnestly reflect, that the greater 

 roots do little more than serve as canals or channels, to trans- 

 mit the sap to the trunk, where it ascends by the tubes of the 

 wood to the branches, and ultimately to the leaves ; on which 

 account it is evident, that the failure and decay of the top 

 (the great opprobrium of transplanters) is primarily to be as- 

 cribed to the entire want of skill in the preservation of these 

 fibrous roots, on which the tree mainly depends, for a suita- 

 ble supply of sap during the first season. He, therefore, who 

 can most successfully vanquish this difficulty, is the greatest 

 master of his art. 



But to return to the business of the field. As soon as the 

 workmen have completed the task of extrication, within 

 three or four feet of the stem, as already explained, it becomes 

 necessary to take measures for pulling down the tree. Ac- 

 cording to circumstances, its roots are now either to be cov- 

 ered up, in order to be planted out with others at a future 

 period, or it is immediately to be raised from the pit and 

 removed by itself. On the supposition that the roots are to 

 be covered up, it is of some importance, that that work be 

 done properly and carefully, so as not to injure the tender 

 fibres. After trying various substances for this purpose, I 

 have found nothing to answer so well as the smaller branches 

 of the spruce or silver fir, which unite closeness with elasti- 



