TRANSPLANTING. 333 



cident or injury. But if precautions of the same nature aa 

 in grafting are not requisite in budding, others are of no less 

 moment. It is indispensable that the bud which is employed 

 should be fully formed, or what gardeners call ripe ; if it is 

 imperfectly formed, or unripe, it may not be capable of that 

 subsequent elongation upwards and downwards upon which 

 the whole success of the practice depends. Secondly, great 

 care should be taken, in raising the bark of the stock for the 

 insertion of the bud, that the cambium be not disturbed or 

 injured. The cambium is a secretion between the wood and 

 bark, not only destined to support the descending fibres of 

 the buds, but also to generate the new cellular substance 

 within which the descending fibres are finally found imbed- 

 ded. If, in the preparation of the bark for receiving the bud, 

 this cambium be injured or disturbed, it becomes much less 

 capable of effecting the cohesion that is necessary, than if 

 uninjured. In budding, therefore, the bark should be care- 

 fully lifted up^ and not forced from'the wood with a bone or 

 metal blade, as is usually the case ; for although it is no 

 doubt true, that an operation clumsily performed will often 

 succeed, yet it should be remembered, that if skilfully man- 

 aged it would be attended with much more perfect success ; 

 and that a habit of constantly operating with delicacy will 

 enable a gardener to succeed with certainty in cases in which 

 a bungling practitioner would be sure to fail. Little do those 

 who crush with rude hands the tender limbs of plants, reflect 

 how delicate is that organization upon which the life of theif 

 victim is dependent. 



TRANSPLANTING. 



Transplanting is, perhaps, that operation in which tha / 

 greatest difficulty is generally found to exist, and in which 

 the causes of success or failure are often the least under- 

 stood. 



Volumes have been written on the subject, and the whole 

 range of vegetable physiology has been called in aid of the / 

 explanation of the theory; yet I am much mistaken if it ^ 

 cannot be proved to depend exclusively upon the two fol- 

 lowing circumstances : 1. The preservation of the span- 

 gioles of the roots ; and, 2. The prevention of excessive eva- 

 poration. 



It is well known that plants feed upon fluid contained in 

 the soil, and that their roots are the mouths through which 

 the food is conveyed into their body. But the absorp- 



