Strictures on Steuarfs Planter's Guide, 89 



been transplanted with greater success. The trees are considerably above 

 one hundred in number, and of many sorts : oaks, Scotch and English elm 

 ash, horsechestnut, beech, several of the fir tribe, black and woolly-leaved 

 poplar ; besides Portugal laurel, laurel-bay, holly, and other evergreens. The 

 finest trees are now from 36 to 42 ft. in height, and in girth, at breast height, 

 from 2 ft. 9 in. to 1 ft. 10 in. Beside these, there are a good many others to 

 the eastward, between the house and the offices, which were transplanted at 

 an earlier period, all of which are in excellent health and of vigorous growth. 



" The next person we shall mention is Mr. William Macnab, now of the 

 Royal Botanic Garden of Edinburgh. That gentleman was foreman to Mr. 

 Ayton of Kew, in the year 1807, at which time Her late Majesty Queen 

 Charlotte being desirous to have a new place made at Kew, with laro-e trees 

 and shrubs, the removal of these, and the conducting of the whole operations, 

 naturally devolved upon him. Of this matter Sir Henry takes notice (p. 63.), 

 saying, ' Of late years, however, some successful examples have been given 

 of what may be called horticultural transplantation, that is, the removal of 

 large shrubs and trees of an ornamental or exotic species.' It is not easy to 

 say whether he means to impress us with the ease or difficulty of the under- 

 taking, by calling it a ' horticultural transplantation,' and designating the 

 trees as ' ornamental or exotic' Almost all the transplanted trees at Al- 

 lanton are ' exotic ; ' such are the lime, the larch, the sycamore, the horse- 

 chestnut, and even the beech , and surely Sir Henry will not deny that these 

 trees are ' ornamental.' At all events, Sir Henry admits that large trees and 

 shrubs were transplanted at the Royal Garden at Kew, ' with extraordinary 

 success.' 



" Mr. Macnab, therefore, was no novice hi the business, when, in the year 

 1822, he was intrusted with the transplanting, from the old botanic garden 

 at Leith Walk, to the new botanic garden at Inverleith, of what Sir Henry 

 justly calls ' a vast number of plants of great variety and value.' 



" Sir Henry tell us, that, a year previous to taking them up, Mr. Macnab 

 followed the ingenious method of Lord Fitzharding, in cutting the roots 

 around the plants, at some short distance from the stem. But, though Sir 

 Henry thinks that, ' more than thirty years ago, he (Sir Henry) was the first 

 to introduce this into Scotland.' Mr. Macnab has publicly denied having 

 learned it at his school. 



" Indeed, his having prepared his subjects after this method, was only 

 according to the practice of the best Scottish gardeners ,• for, although our 

 author thinks that he has reason to believe that he himself, more than thirty 

 years ago, was the first to introduce this method into Scotland, there are, 

 perhaps, few Scottish gardeners who do not know that he thinks wrong. 

 For Mi\ John Reid, gardener to Sir George Mackenzie of Rosehaugh, who 

 published his Scots Gardener in 1683, taught his countrymen this very 

 method. His words are : ' The rule for removing old large trees out of 

 woods or other places, which never were before transplanted, is to make a 

 trench at two sides of the tree, at a considerable distance, till you can force 

 the tree upon one side ; then cut the tap-root through, saving as many col- 

 lateral roots as you can ; lessen its head or top it, if it will suffer, and so set 

 up the tree again, and tread in the earth about it, as it was ; let it stand two 

 years, to emit fibrous or feeding roots to nurse it when planted out.'* So 

 that Mr. Macnab should have shown himself ignorant, indeed, if he had 



" * First edition, small 4to, p. 80. Edim 1683, published by David Lindsay, 

 foot of Heriot's Bridge; edition, 1776, 18mo, published by James Reid, 

 Leith, pp. 91, 92. Had such a passage occurred in any of the Scriptores de 

 Re Rustica, and been unknown to Sir Henry, he would have felt ashamed ; 

 yet no mean authority has declared, ' Turpe est in patria vivere et patriam 

 nescire.' " 



