nicol's planter's calendar. 165 



new vigour to the soft fibrous rootlets, and greater ex- 

 tension than they otherwise would have attained. But 

 in regard to some kinds of compound plants of per- 

 ennial stem, transplanting, especially when the plant 

 has attained some size, by fracture, throws the main 

 wide diverging roots into numerous rootlets and slen- 

 der matted fibres, none of which has individual 

 strength to extend as a leader far beyond the shade 

 of the spreading top, thence forage in a drier, more 

 exhausted soil, and, from consequent want of supply 

 of moisture, the sap of the tree stagnates into flower, 

 or merely leaf-buds, instead of flowing out into new 

 wood. The fibrous softer rooting vegetables sustain 

 no lasting injury from root-fracture and transplant- 

 ing ; but the harder, more woody, larger growing 

 roots, losing their leader, never entu'ely recover their 

 original power of extention. Yet we think that one 

 or two year old plants, taken from the seed-bed, 

 would suffer little or no injury from removal, as the 

 tap-root, which is ultimately of no consequence, 

 never constituting a leader, but eventually disap- 



woody vegetables of perennial stem, the reparation of the root-injury 

 takes place slowly, and the evaporation from the stem and ele- 

 vated branches and leaves exhausting the little moisture afforded 

 by the inadequate root-suction during an entire season, gives 

 time and bias for the germs to pass into reproductory instead of 

 productory organs even the first season. 



