PLANTING. 



361 



the atmosphere as to prevent too great a drain 

 on their mutilated roots, for the supply of the 

 leaves in the process of perspiration caused by 

 the powerful influence of the sun's rays on their 

 porous tissues. Shading, to prevent evapora- 

 tion, and creating an artificial atmosphere 

 around them, would do much to secure success, 

 but the difficulties attending the accomplish- 

 ment of these conditions are not easily over- 

 come. 



" It behoves us, then," says Mr Middlemas 

 (in "Magazine of Botany"), "to look for a period 

 when the tree is neither in a torpid state nor 

 in its most active growth, nor when the sun's 

 rays are so destructively powerful on trees un- 

 prepared with a sufficient supply of evaporative 

 matter for the roots to satisfy the demands 

 made upon them by a hot dry atmosphere; and 

 we shall find that from the middle of August 

 to the end of September is the best period, as 

 providing for the circumstances of our case." 



Reasons against spring transplanting. — We 

 find Dr Lindley exposing the evils of spring 

 planting both in his excellent " Theory of Horti- 

 culture," and elsewhere in his voluminous and 

 useful writings. In a leading article in " The 

 Gard. Chron." he observes, in directing attention 

 to late spring planting, " If we search for solid 

 reasons why spring planting should be adopted, 

 we fail to discover the least resemblance to 

 them ; or if resemblances to reason do appear, 

 they vanish the moment they are examined. 

 The great argument in its favour is its occasional 

 success, but this is of all reasons the most un- 

 satisfactory. The cause of death, when trees are 

 removed, is almost entirely that they lose the 

 fluid contained within them faster than it can 

 be renewed, the end being the drying up of 

 their vessels, which is immediately followed up 

 by 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 be the 

 former in an enormous degree. The air is pecu- 

 liarly 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 mois- 

 ture rapidly, and consequently such a state of 

 things is most unfavourable to plants which 

 require to retain their moisture. At first their 

 young 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 the late Mr Knight, who sur- 

 rounded their stems with damp moss, and 

 thus preserved them. Established trees suffer 

 nothing from the dry air of spring, because their 

 roots are unmutilated, and restore the moisture 

 as fast as it flies off from their surface. But 

 newly-planted trees, whose roots are neces- 

 sarily much mutilated, suffer, because they can- 



not obtain fluid from the soil until the roots 

 are renewed, and before that can happen they 

 are dead ; for the feebleness of the stem actu- 

 ally diminishes the capability of the plant to 

 renew its roots. But it is said, if a tree is just 

 budding when planted, it is in the most favour- 

 able state, because it will immediately make 

 fresh root, the act of vegetation upwards be- 

 ing simultaneous with growth in a downward 

 direction. There is here, however, a fallacy : 

 it is assumed that the upward and down- 

 ward vegetation will go on when a plant is 

 transplanted, as well as if it had been left in 

 its former place : that, however, depends on 

 the external conditions to which it is ex- 

 posed. If the surrounding air is damp, and 

 remains so, evaporation being thus prevented for 

 a sufficiently long time, roots will be quickly 

 formed, and the plant will go on growing ; on 

 the other hand, if the air is dry, and exhausts 

 the branches of their moisture, new roots can- 

 not be formed, and the plant will die. Life in 

 such a case is staked upon the chance of the 

 atmosphere being in a very favourable state, 

 and the chances are ten to one against its being 

 so. These considerations abundantly prove 

 the spring to be the worst of all seasons for 

 a planter." 



Other seasons for transplanting. — There have 

 been many instances of successful transplanting 

 at all seasons except midsummer; and there are 

 many, as Downing remarks, " who, from having 

 been once or twice successful in transplanting, 

 when trees were nearly in leaf, avow that to be 

 the best season, not taking into account that 

 their success was probably entirely owing to a 

 fortunately damp state of the atmosphere at the 

 time, and abundant rains after the experiment 

 was performed." 



The theory of transplanting by the preservation 

 of the spongioles of the roots. — This theory, al- 

 though long recognised by physiologists, was 

 first brought into general notice by Mr George 

 Lindley, in the " Guide to the Orchard." " It is 

 well known," he remarks, " that plants feed upon 

 fluid contained in the soil, and that their roots 

 are the mouths through which the food is con- 

 veyed into the body. But the absorption of 

 fluid does not take place either by all the sur- 

 faces of their roots, nor even of their fibres, but 

 only by the extremities of the latter, consisting 

 of bundles of vessels surrounded by cellular 

 tissue in a very lax spongy state, whence those 

 extremities are called spongioles. It is only 

 through the spongioles that absorption to any 

 amount takes place. These spongioles are ex- 

 ceedingly delicate in their organisation, and a 

 very slight degree of violence destroys them. 

 It is scarcely possible to remove the soil from 

 the roots without injuring them in some degree; 

 and if transplantation is effected violently or 

 carelessly, they are in a great measure destroyed. 

 In proportion to the size or age of a tree is the 

 difficulty of preserving them increased, and 

 hence, at the same time, the difficulty of trans- 

 plantation is augmented. If by any method the 

 spongioles could be preserved unharmed, there 

 would be no reason whatever why the largest 

 forest trees should not be removed as easily as 



