hy JLindley's Theory of Horticulture. 459 



rectly laid down. Deciduous plants will suffer least, if removed 

 when in a comparatively dormant state ; in fact they should not 

 be moved in any other ; and to get the benefit of any growth 

 that may take place by the root in winter, the sooner this is done 

 after the plants are ripe the better. But some grounds will not 

 admit of planting early, where the soil is adhesive, and not pro^ 

 perly drained, and perhaps the nature of the levels such that it 

 will not admit of draining properly ; whenever a slit or pit is 

 made in such ground in the autumn, and the tree planted, the 

 water collects at the cuts in the winter, and rots the roots, and the 

 plants perish. In some situations also, exposed to heavy winds 

 in winter, the stem of the plant, before its roots are fixed, gets 

 knocked about with the wind ; the effect of which is to form a 

 hole around the neck of the stem, the rain, frost, and drought 

 penetrate, and the plant is very apt to perish. A partial remedy 

 for the storm in high lands, if the surface is bare and the grass 

 not rank-growing, is to plant small plants ; if very bare, how- 

 ever, it may be heaved by the frosts and thaws, and the small 

 plants thrown out ; or if the grass is strong, a small plant may 

 be overtopped in summer and perish, and large plants be re- 

 quired ; even small plants also will suffer, if very much exposed. 

 In all situations, such as above noticed, the sooner the plant com- 

 mences to grow after planting, the less will be the risk ; and late 

 planting, provided the plant has not begun to spring, nor to form 

 young roots, which it will do rather before the buds begin to 

 swell, will generally succeed best. Evergreens are not generally 

 planted in such situations, and large plants of these, if not ex- 

 posed to heavy winds, or supported against them, will undoubt- 

 edly, as Mr. M'Nab says, have most success, if planted in soft 

 weather in the beginning of winter; the roots get settled in the 

 soil, and the plant comes away more vigorously. Wet weather, 

 as he also states, is indispensable to the success of the operation, 

 it settles the roots in the ground : if the weather is only mode- 

 rately wet, the plants, as soon as planted and trod, should be 

 saturated from a watering pan, round the roots, before the last 

 stratum of drier earth is put on. Small seedling plants of ever- 

 greens, however, planted out for nursing, are more apt to perish 

 from inclement weather in winter; and seedling laurels, hollies, 

 Scotch firs, &c., put out in autumn, will be found to suffer more 

 from the severe frosts and thaws that occur in February and 

 March, than the same plants standing on the seed-bed ; the roots 

 of the latter are more fixed in the ground, and the living prin- 

 ciple being stronger, from the plant not being enfeebled by trans- 

 planting, it does not suffer so much from the cold. The plants 

 bedded out in the autumn apparently grow very little in winter, at 

 least no new fibres are formed till the air gets warmer in spring; 

 the cuts that are made by the spades in the ground, in the act of 



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