Sir Uenn/ Sfeuari's Planfer^s Guide. 339 



success of the planter, in this particular branch of the art, will 

 be in the actual proportion in which his subjects possess the 

 following four protecting properties : — I . thickness and in- 

 duration of bark ; 2. stoutness and girth of stem ; 3. nume- 

 rousness of roots and fibres ; and 4. extent, balance, and 

 closeness of branches. In the still imperfect knowledge of 

 vegetable physiology, it is not to be thought surprising that 

 the justness of some of the opinions brought forward of the 

 theory of the effects of these protecting properties should be 

 questioned ; but, for the important purposes of practice, the 

 conclusions are correct, and serve as a beacon to warn off 

 rashness and overhaste from the operations. There is one 

 point, however, which, with every deference, I now refer to ; 

 it occurs at page 15L, where it is stated that " size offers to 

 successful removal no actual impediment, farther than increased 

 expenditure." I venture to state, that every species of vege- 

 table, from the plant of grass whose natural period of life 

 extends only to six months, to that of the oak which extends 

 to as many hundreds of years, has a peculiar length of life, 

 in which distinct periods are marked, from the seedling state 

 to that of fructification or perfect maturity, and from that 

 again to decay and death ; and, also, that the reproductive 

 power of vegetable life declines in proportion to the advance of 

 age, after the period of full maturity ; and that, though size 

 may not greatly impede successful transplantation (if every part 

 of the process is executed as well as in the case of a mode- 

 rately sized tree), yet I submit that age must have a very great 

 influence indeed; although, no doubt, we must wait until prac- 

 tice afford facts to point out the degree of influence which dif- 

 ferent periods of age exercise over the successful transplant- 

 ation of trees of large growth. I may be permitted to add, 

 that a two or three years old oak tree may be deprived of 

 nearly all its roots, and be transplanted, and, with ordinary 

 care, will grow and flourish ; but the same tree, twenty years 

 older, would perish inevitably under that deprivation. Again, 

 the vital reproductive power is much stronger in some species 

 of plants than in others ; in this respect the difference is great 

 between the willow and the pine, or fir. The former, even 

 when aged, will, if deprived of a limb, or of the trunk itself, 

 reproduce others ; but the latter will not reproduce a branch, 

 even when young, and, at a more advanced age, will perish, if 

 the trunk be divided below the branches. This reproductive 

 power of vegetable life varying so much in the same individual 

 plant at different stages of growth, and also in the different 

 genera, and even, frequently, in the different species of the same 

 genus, influences the practice of planting with regard to 



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