APPENDIX. 407 



Commencing as near the tree as possible, cutting off many of the roots, 

 with the very smallest degree of reluctance, wrenching the remaining mass 

 out of their bed as speedily and almost as roughly as possible, the operator 

 hastens to complete his destructive process by cutting off the best part of 

 the head of the tree, to make it correspond with the reduced state of the 

 roots. Arrived at the hole prepared for its reception, his replanting consists 

 in shoveling in, while the tree is held upright, the surroundmg soil, — 

 paying little or no regard to filling up all the small interstices among the 

 roots, — and finally, after treading the earth as hard as possible, complet- 

 ing the whole by pouring two or three pails of water upon the top of the 

 ground. How any reflecting person, who looks upon a plant as a delicately 

 organized individual, can reasonably expect or hope for success after such 

 treatment in transplanting, is what we never could fully miderstand ! And 

 it has always, therefore, appeared pretty evident, that all such operators 

 must have very crude and imperfect notions of vegetable physiology, or the 

 structure and functions of plants. 



The first and most important consideration in transplanting should be the 

 preservation of the roots. By this we do not mean a certain bulk of the lar- 

 ger and more important ones only, but as far as possible all the numerous 

 small fibres and rootlets so indispensably necessary in assisting the tree to 

 recover from the shock of removal. The coarser and larger roots serve to 

 secure the tree in its position and convey the fluids, but it is by means of 

 the small fibrous roots, or the delicate and numerous 'points of these fibres 

 called spongioles, that the food of plants is imbibed, and the destruction of 

 such is, therefore, in the highest degree fatal to the success of the trans- 

 planted tree. To avoid this as far as practicable, we should, in removing a 

 tree, commence at such a distance as to include a circumference large 

 enough to comprise the great majority of the roots. At that distance from 

 the trunk we shall find most of the smaller roots, which should be carefully 

 loosened from the soil, with as little injury as possible ; the earth should 

 be gently and gradually removed from the larger roots, as we proceed on- 

 ward from the extremity of the circle to the centre, and when we reach the 

 nucleus of roots surrounding the trunk, and fairly undermine the whole, 

 we shall find ourselves in possession of a tree in such a perfect condition, 

 that even when of considerable size, we may confidently hope for a speedy 

 recovery of its former luxuriance after being replanted. 



Now to remove a tree in this manner, requires not only a considerable 



