418 



NOTES AND ILLUSTKATTONS. 



himself is far from recommending) suggested good ground for mis- 

 carriage, without having recourse to imaginary causes.' 



There is no writer, ancient or modern, who ever had more science, 

 and more practical skill united, than Miller, in the cultivation of wood ; 

 and he distinctly states that, from repeated trials, "he could not 

 observe the least difference in the growth of those trees which were so 

 placed (that is, as they had previously stood) and others which had 

 been reversed," — See Gardener' s and Botanisfs Diet, in voce "Planting." 

 A few of the later phytologists support the same opinion, in which long 

 -experience obliges me to coincide ; although I am surprised to observe, 

 that modern writers of some name are not wanting to perpetuate the 

 prejudice. 



Note IX. Page 103. 



Although I have never, in my own practice, made an exception to 

 this rule, yet were I to make any, it would be respecting the small 

 terminal shoots of trees, which certainly might be retrenched without 

 injury, and perhaps with advantage. In a communication with which 

 I was honoured from the illustrious president of the Horticultural 

 Society of London, Mr Knight, after approving generally of my theory 

 ^s to the preservative principle, he has the following valuable remarks : — 



"I have only one suggestion to offer for your consideration. All 

 trees have, I think, after they arrive at the age of puberty, generally 

 more slender shoots at the extremities of the branches (which slender 

 shoots are intended to bear blossoms) than are beneficial to the tree 

 itself ; and if the number of these were reduced in the transplanted 

 tree, it would still expose as much foliage to the light as if many more 

 such slender shoots remained, while the expenditure of sap in forming 

 shaded, and therefore useless foliage, would be saved, I have trans- 

 planted fruit-trees of different kinds of a large size, without shortening 

 their large branches, and I have always found much advantage in 

 diminishing considerably the number of their slender terminal shoots." 



