28 



THE planter's GUIDE. 



Roiisillon, at the foot of the Pyrenees, which he bnilt and 

 embellished, and which was named after him, he made the 

 most surprising improvements of every sort ; and unless 

 the imagination of a poet of the time has too highly 

 coloured the description, the transplanted groves, at this 

 sequestered spot, rose with such sudden luxuriance that 

 the birds at once flocked to them, and, nestling among the 

 branches, filled the air with their melodious notes : — 



In nemus repente natum 



Aves undique devolaiit, 



Nidosque pouunt, hospitis sub frondibus, 



Mulceiites teneris vocibus setliera.* 



About the middle of the seventeenth century, as we 

 learn from Evelyn, the practice of transplanting in the 

 French way came much into use in England. No tree, 

 he observes, was found to bear the process better than the 

 Elm, or recover sooner from its severity. He himself, he 

 says, " had frequently removed trees of this sort, almost as 

 big as his waist.'' But he first carefully " disbranched" 

 them, leaving the whole summit entire. Men of rank and 

 afiluence, we find, about the same era, transplanted great 

 trees of various kinds, with vast labour and expense; and 

 a Devonshke nobleman in particular, whose name has not 

 been recorded, removed oaks as large as twelve oxen 

 could draw, for the pm-pose of supplying a defect in an 

 avenue leading to one of his residences.! 



The first attempt at any thing like knowledge in the 

 art was made by a Lord Fitzharding of this period. 

 That nobleman, as it appears, was a contemporary of 

 Evelyn's, and lord-treasurer of the household to King 

 Charles 11. But his experiments were limited to subjects 



* Commir. Op. Post. p. 41. f Silva, vol. i. pp. 102, 125. 



