SEASON FOK TRANSPLANTING. 447 



perspiration may seem to be feeble, yet the thinness of the 

 newly formed tissue will not enable it to resist the drying 

 action of the atmosphere unless there is a most abundant 

 afflux of sap from the roots. In England, too, the months 

 when buds begin to burst forth are objectionable, not only on 

 account of their dryness, but of their coldness, which prevents 

 the free circulation of sap; and the evil effects are felt not 

 only by the roots through the foliage, but directly, as will be 

 shown hereafter. 



The season, then, which ought to be chosen is the period 

 that intervenes between the fall of the leaf in autumn and the 

 earliest part of spring, before the sap begins to move and the 

 dry cold winds of that season to prevail. I entirely agree with 

 Macnab, that the earliest time at which planting can be effected 

 is, upon the whole, the best; a conclusion to which he has come 

 from his extensive practice, in which my own observation of a 

 great deal of planting for the last twenty -five years coincides, 

 and which is, in all respects, conformable to theory. As soon 

 as a plant has shed its leaves it is as much at rest for the 

 season as it wiU be at any subsequent period,' unless it is 

 frozen ; its torpor, indeed, is greater at that time, because its 

 excitability is completely exhausted by the season of growth, 

 and it has had no time to recover it. If, at that time, a root is 

 wounded, a process of granulation or cicatrisation will com- 

 mence, just as it does in cuttings ; and from that granulation, 

 which is a mere development of the cellular system, roots will 

 eventually proceed. Now, it is obvious that since roots must 

 be wounded in the process of transplantation, the sooner the 

 wound is made the better, because it has the longer time in 

 which to heal : and therefore the earlier in the autumn trans- 

 planting is effected, the less injury wiU be sustained by the 

 plant submitted to the process ; in the technical language of the 

 gardener, "it has the more time to establish itself." Deci- 

 duous trees usually begin to assume their autumnal hue in 

 September, and as soon as that has happened they may be 

 transplanted with safety. 



Autumn and early winter are, moreover, the best seasons, 

 because of their great dampness. It will be seen by reference 



