58 TRANSPLANTING TREES. 



tance of more than seven miles. The great 

 transplanting machine employed on these occa- 

 sions, remained at Versailles, till probably 

 about the time of the French Revolution." 



One of the young ladies observed, that she 

 had found difficulty in removing a few lilacs 

 and roses only to a border across the path, 

 and that many of them had died. 



The roots," replied Mr. Longhurst, were 

 probably too much cut and exposed ; perhaps 

 nearly all the thread-like fibres, by which 

 plants subsist, were torn away.^' 



Any tree," I said, would travel round 

 the world, with as little damage or danger as 

 it encounters in standing still, if the finer roots, 

 and the earth about the roots, remained undis- 

 turbed. Old Evelyn says that he has moved 

 elms as big as his body, by engines, without 

 injury to any part of the tree." 



