**6 SEASON FOR TRANSPLANTING. 



When a plant is taken out of the ground for transplanting, 

 its roots are necessarily more or less injured in the process, 

 and consequently it is less able to support the stem than it was 

 before the mutilation took place ; its loss of this power wiU 

 also be in proportion to the extent of the mutilation, which may 

 be carried so far as to amount to destruction. 



But the importance of their roots to plants is not alike at all 

 seasons ; in the summer, when there is the greatest demand 

 upon them in consequence of the perspiration of the foliage, 

 they are most essential ; in wiater, when the leaves have fallen, 

 they are comparatively unimportant, as is evident from a very 

 common case. Let a limb of a tree be felled in fuU leaf in 

 June; its foliage will presently wither, the bark will shrivel 

 and dry up, and the whole will speedily perish ; but, if a similar 

 limb is lopped in November, when its foliage has naturally 

 fallen off, it will exhibit no sign of death during winter, nor 

 till the return of spring, when it may make a dying effort to 

 recover, but the means it takes to do so, namely the emission 

 of leaves, only accelerates its end. 



These two propositions really include all the most essential 

 parts of the theory of transplantation, as will presently be seen; 

 it is necessary, however, that they should be applied in some 

 detail, for which purpose it will be convenient to consider, 

 first the season, and secondly the manner in which transplant- 

 ing can be best effected. 



It is the powerful perspiratory action of the leaves of 

 deciduous trees which renders transplanting them in a growing 

 state so difficult, that for practical purposes it may be called 

 impossible; for the operation is necessarily* attended by a 

 mutilation of the roots which feed the leaves. At no period, 

 then, can the operation be performed if such plants are growing. 

 Even if the buds are only pushing, the process should be 

 avoided, because immediately after that period the demand 

 upon the roots is greatest ; for although in consequence of the 

 smallness of the surface of the young leaves the action of 



• Transplanting from garden pots, in wHoh the roots are preserved artificially 

 from injury, may be performed equally well at any time, and is, of course, not included 

 in this statement. 



