136 urnsERiES. 



SECTION I. 



Properties of good transplants in general- 



Before we can undertake to establish a nursery we must first 

 of all know, as far as it is possible to do so, what description of 

 planting material to raise, that is to say, what kind of transplant 

 will succeed best in any given case. But as regards the species 

 and the age, size and special quality of the plants required — points 

 of very great moment and often demanding exceptionally accurate 

 perception and judgment — they are completely determined for the 

 nurseryman by the forester working out in the forests, and they 

 will be found discussed in their proper place further on. The nur- 

 seryman need only be able to recognise a good transplant by its 

 general appearanbe, so that he may know what to do in order to 

 raise such plants and how to select those he has to send out. 



It is evident that for different kinds of work different qualities 

 of seedlings are required, qualities depending on the species, age, 

 soil, climate, locality, &o ; but there are certain general characters 

 which all planting material must possess, and these combined gene- 

 ral characters constitute what may be termed vigour. In its nor- 

 mal state every species has at each stage of growth a different 

 habit, i.e. a general arrangement and shape of root-apparatus, 

 stem and crown peculiar to itself. This limitation being borne 

 in mind, a vigorous seedling will be recognised by (i) its form and 

 proportionate development approaching the normal habit of the 

 species, (ii) a full root-apparatus, and (iii) a healthy crown. 



(i). Form and propoetionate development. — The form of 

 the seedling should approach as nearly as possible the form of 

 the normal seedling of the given species, the development of each 

 part being proportionate to the development of every other part. 

 For instsi,nce, the stem should not be abnormally thin for the height 

 of the seedling or the fulness of the crown, the crown should not 

 be abnormally small for the thickness of the stem, and so on. 

 "Whenever there is any want of just proportion (and this will gene- 

 rally be found to be the case, since the normal state will rarely be 

 attained), it is better that the extent of the roots should predomi- 

 nate over every other part, and the lateral spread of the crown 

 over the height of the plant or the thickness of stem. 



(ii; A FULL EOOT-APPARATUS— -This expression is of course a 

 very comparative one, for the fulness of the root-apparatus in any 

 case will evidently depend on the age of the seedhng in question and 

 the species to which it belongs. For instance all yearlings agre^ 



