196 TRANSPLANTING. 



shoots than allow it to be diffused and neutralised 

 over the debilitated shoots of the former year ? Let 

 us observe what new vigour is imparted to a bud, 

 graft, or cutting, taken from a tree, or a shoot from 

 an old stool of an herb by being separated from the 

 parent and placed in a situation favourable to its 

 habit and condition. In its former station it only 

 received a share of the nourishment yielded by a 

 large system of roots ; in its new place it depends on 

 attachments to a youthful stem, or fibres formed by 

 itself, and becomes an independent being, and expands 

 in all the force of youth. So it is with a new planted 

 young tree ; by pruning the roots a set of new active 

 fibres is produced, and by cutting-in the last year's 

 shoots, when both are necessary, fresh ones come forth 

 in connection with the new fibres, both progressing 

 vigorously together. 



This plain statement, sanctioned, moreover, by 

 being pretty generally acted upon, is, nevertheless, 

 very differently understood, even among practical 

 men. There are two circumstances which have pro- 

 bably caused this difference of opinion : the first is, 

 the imputed efficiency of the leaves in vegetable 

 economy ; and the second, an unheeded fact, that 

 old trees require less pruning of the head on removal 

 than those that are young. This latter circumstance, 

 by the by, is easily accounted for, and is evidently 

 as follows : old trees, say of twenty or thirty years' 

 growth, always contain a store of coagulated sap in 

 their stem and branches ; this becoming fluid on the 



