452 TRANSPLANTING EVERGEEENS. 



drying up of their vessels, which is immediately followed hy a loss of 

 vital force. If we inquire whether the circumstances to which spring- 

 planted trees are exposed are favourable or unfavourable to this fatal 

 loss of fluid, we find them to he the former in an enormous degree. The 

 air is peculiarly dry in the spring, and frequently in rapid motion at 

 the same time ; all objects exposed to a current of dry air must part 

 with their moisture rapidly, and consequently such a state of things is 

 most unfavourable to plants which reqtiire to retain their moisture. At 

 first their yoimg bark is the channel through which the moisture flies off, 

 but as soon as young leaves appear, should the trees live long enough, 

 and the perspiring surface is thus extended, this loss goes on with far 

 greater rapidity, and life is soon extinguished. Evergreens, which have 

 always a very large perspiring surface, are on. that account exposed to 

 much more danger, and consequently the losses among them are much 

 greater. That the excessive loss of fluid from the interior is the true cause 

 of death in newly-planted trees was proved by, we think, Mr. Knight, 

 who surrounded their stems with damp moss and thus preserved them. 



In the year 1822, in the month of August, there were 

 planted in the garden of the Horticultural Society of London 

 above six thousand Hollies, from two to three feet high, for the 

 purpose of forming fences ; few plants in all that number 

 ever exhibited any traces of having been removed, and I do not 

 believe that a hundred died. The weather was dry, but the 

 plants were deluged with water when placed in their holes, and 

 they had been obtained from the Eegent's Park, where they 

 grew in the stiff clay of that side of London, the consequence of 

 which was that, when taken out of the ground, so much earth 

 adhered to them that they were almost in the state of plants 

 removed from pots. Transplanting evergreens even at mid- 

 summer has many able advocates, and there is no questioning 

 the fact that this season has been found eminently propitious. 

 But at midsummer the air and soil are in a very different state 

 from any part of the spring. Both are warm and moist, 

 and furnish the operator with highly favourable conditions. 



The proper time at which to transplant evergreens has now 

 been finally and conclusively determined, so far as the south 

 of England is concerned. Mr. Glendinning, a nurseryman of 

 great experience, agreeing in opinion with Horace Walpole, has 

 recorded it as the result of his practice that August is a good 

 month to begin in, September being the safest month. Many 



