290 APPLICATION OF PRINCIPLES. 



then the work should be performed in the evening, 

 when the sun gets low, especially in spring or autumn 

 planting. 



Next in importance to the" selection of a fitting sea- 

 son, is the preservation of the roots of transplanted 

 trees ; the former is of little consequence, if the latter 

 is not more carefully attended to. We know, indeed, 

 that some plants will live with the rudest treatment, 

 and bear the most severe mutilation without much 

 suffering ; but those are special instances of extreme 

 tenacity of life, and do not affect general principles. 

 The value of great attention to the roots, in the ope- 

 ration of shifting, has already been pointed out (p. 

 269), and transplanting is only shifting in another 

 manner. It would be the duty of the gardener to 

 save every minute fibre of the roots, if it were prac- 

 ticable ; but, as that is not the case, his care must be 

 confined to lifting his trees with the least possible 

 destruction of those important organs; remembering 

 always that it is not by the coarse old woody roots 

 that the absorption of food is carried on, but by the 

 younger parts, and especially the spongioles (23,24.) 

 The mechanical means by which this is best effected 

 do not belong to the present subject ; I may, how- 

 ever, remark, without quitting the limits of theory, 

 that, as the greater part of the young fibres is pro- 

 duced at the circumference of the circle formed by 

 the root, the earth should be first removed at some 

 distance from the stem, so as to insure, as far as pos- 

 sible, their being taken up entire ; if this is not done, 

 but the spade is struck into the earth near the stem, 



