104 



THE planter's GUIDE. 



different organs of woody plants^ by whicli those pro- 

 perties are designated. From what has been said, the 

 inteUigent reader will perceive, that the principle adopted 

 for a new theory of the art is founded on the laws of 

 vegetation, and the researches of the most eminent phy- 

 tologists. By reducing it to practice, the mutilating 

 system now generally prevalent will be rendered unneces- 

 sary, and a method established which is obviously supe- 

 rior in itself, and more agreeable to observation and 

 experience. This system I shall venture to call the 

 Peeseryatiye. But before concluding these remarks, it 

 is but fair towards the existing system to take a short 

 view of the actual merits of both, and, by giving them in 

 a comparative way, endeavour to show how each applies 

 to practice. 



We will suppose that a planter, according to the muti- 

 lating method, is to remove to an exposed situation a tree 

 eight-and-twenty or thirty feet high, three feet and a half 

 in girth (or fourteen inches in diameter) at a foot from 

 the ground. We will suppose further, that it displays 

 the most perfect symlnetry of form, having an expansion 

 of top from five-and-twenty to eight-and-twenty feet, 

 with boughs descending to within three or four feet of 

 the ground. Such a tree we may consider as a very 

 handsome subject, and sucli as has frequently been 

 removed at this place. 



Having prepared the roots according to Lord Fitz- 

 harding's method, three or four years before, and taken 

 them up as well as he can, perhaps seven feet out from 

 the stem, (which, according to Marshall, is well rooted for 

 its height,'") we will suppose that this planter then pro- 

 ceeds to lighten and lop the top, in order to reduce it, as 



* Rural Ornament, vol. i. p. 367. 



