464 Queries and Answers. 



being covered with a luxuriant foliage, without its possessing at the same time 

 beautiful spongioles. Even the shoots that rise from the stool of an ash or 

 an oak, though luxuriating for a time upon the sap obtained from the root as 

 a reservoir, soon demand a fresh "supply, which they take care to provide for 

 by the creation of absorbing organs. If your correspondent had closely 

 examined the subject, he would have found that his vines did not flourish 

 without possessing plenty of fibres and spongioles also ; and he would have 

 been led to doubt, whether the branchy parts of roots absorb " much more 

 nutriment" than the trunk of a tree cut down in winter does, for the spray 

 and shoots it frequently produces in the ensuing season. It happens, unfortu- 

 nately for your correspondent's hypothesis, that, though the vine loses frequently 

 great part of its terminating fibres every season, it soon obtains very beautiful 

 spongioles, when vegetation in the branches has commenced ; provided the 

 roots and tops are situated in nearly similar circumstances, as regards tempe- 

 rature. 



I am supposing that your correspondent performed the transplanting ope- 

 ration after the fall of the leaf; and, although he would lose a great many fibres, 

 it is not unlikely that an approach to an equilibrium would be made, by the 

 pruning which the top would receive : and, merely in support of the spongiole 

 system, I will mention a fact that came under my observation; which is, that, 

 a gardener having lifted the roots of a vine, for the purpose of placing them 

 more within the influence of the sun's rays, while the top was in leaf, the 

 consequence was, that the next day the leaves were withered. The success 

 in the one case, and the failure in the other, are easily accounted for. In 

 the first case, we may almost be certain that the top of the vine was not left 

 so bulky as it was the preceding summer ; the organs of evaporation were con- 

 sequently diminished, as well as the sponge-like vessels of absorption, while 

 the gradual expansion of the leaves, and consequent transpiration from them, 

 were soon followed by the gradual production of spongioles to supply that 

 transpiration. In the latter case, the sap of the plant was in full motion, 

 the leaves were perspiring and the roots were absorbing freely ; the transplant- 

 ing necessarily destroyed many of the supplying organs, while the leaves were 

 exposed as before to the evaporating and decomposing influences of heat and 

 light; and the mere possession of length of root and many fibres besides, 

 with the assistance of watering, could not avert the consequence. Although 

 aware, that all parts of a plant act and react on each other so as to form a 

 complete whole, many seem to forget that there are certain circumstances 

 necessary, before these parts can effect their reciprocal actions. Hence the 

 failure of transplanted trees; hence the sickly appearance they long present, 

 when they at length begin to recover from the operation, from the top being 

 so much out of unison with the roots ; and hence the failure of the vine I 

 have adverted to. If the processes of decomposition and transpiration had in 

 some measure been prevented by shading, &c, there would have been nothing 

 so remarkable in keeping the vine in health (not speaking of the crop), as we 

 see exemplified every day when striking cuttings under a bell glass. 



This brings me to J. D. P.'s queries respecting cuttings, upon which it is 

 quite unnecessary to enter at length, as I can see nothing in the operation of 

 striking that will support our friend's hypothesis : the very same principle is 

 exemplified that I have adverted to in the case of the transplanted vines, and 

 this will be better understood by attending to the phenomena that take place, 

 when a slip of a gooseberry put unprotected in the ground becomes a plant ; 

 or when a slip furnished with leaves does the same, when shaded from the 

 sun, and attended to in other respects as its comparative hardiness or tender- 

 ness require, than could be done by any laboured description. The method 

 by which moisture is absorbed by a cutting, it being only a disjoined part of a 

 whole, could not be adduced as a proof of the manner it is done by a per- 

 fect plant ; but I conceive that the moisture will rise in the same tubes as 

 formerly, though in a far less perfect way. But it is the top more than the 

 bottom of a cutting, the preservation more than the developement of the vital 



