582 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO I67I. 



transplant them, you expose them on a sudden to an open air, and adventure 

 them, being weak, to a long and perhaps cold winter ; which they cannot bear 

 no more than we can the heat when unused to a voyage beyond the line. I 

 can also relieve them against the drought, by watering and covering the 

 ground, to keep it cool : but there is no fence against the frost ; which often 

 gets into the roots and kills, so that they never spring ; or, if they do, yet 

 weakly, and die in the spring ; or, if they survive, as many do, yet come on 

 very slowly. For the bark cleaves to the wood by reason of the cold, which 

 dries and clings them together, that like a hide-bound horse, they will not ad- 

 mit the sap, which the root would send up ; and other suckers grow out at the 

 earth, and the tree grows dry and turns red : all which discovers the obstruc- 

 tion in the receiving the sap, which would come from the root ; and then we 

 are forced to score and loosen the bark as we can. Now on the other side, if 

 the summer prove moist, the danger and fear of late setting is over, and they 

 will thrive and come forward first ; if otherwise, I seldom see but they always 

 keep green and fresh, being maintained in life and verdure by the sap they re- 

 ceive in the beginning of the spring, before they be transplanted. 



In the dead of winter I prune and cut the tree I intend to transplant, as I 

 would have it be, to the end to lose nothing of its strength when I transplant. 

 Then I suffer it to abide untouched by the spade till Valentine's day, and then 

 remove it, after it has taken in somewhat of the spring. This, I think, will 

 cause it to take better and grow better. 



In transplanting I am very careful to preserve and set the roots as large as I 

 can, supposing the larger the root, the more of strength and sap it contains, 

 and so will advance the more the growth of the tree ; since every thing grows 

 in proportion to the root beneath : but I am doubtful in this, whether I do 

 well or ill, and desire the judgment of others. For I have heard from some 

 planters, that roots cut short do best, as sending forth new roots, which draw 

 sap and nourishment best. And we see that moyles set on slips that have no 

 roots, come to a tree sooner. And I have often observed, that a moyle trans- 

 planted after it has taken root does not live so certainly, or thrive so well, as a 

 slip newly set. 



Sojiie Observations touching Colours, in order to the Increase of Dyes, 

 and the Fixation of Colours. Imparted hy the Author of the four 

 above-mentioned Letters, who annexed them to that of February 15, 

 1670. N''70,p.2V32. 



Two things, I conceive are chiefly aimed at in the inquiry of colours, the 



