312 



THE PRACTICAL GARDENER. 



SEASON OF PLANTING. 



In regard to the season of planting, it may be performed 

 with success at different periods, according to the nature of 

 the land. The best time for planting dry soils is in October • 

 but if in wet soils, the end of February or March is better. 

 The chief principle in this business is to suit the trees to the 

 soil, and to plant them at proper distances fi'om each other. 

 Fruit-trees, when planted too thick, are supposed to be liable to 

 blight, and become overgrown with various species of lichens, 

 and other mosses, particularly the family of Ramalina, which 

 are the most injurious to, and the most fi'equent on fruit-trees, 

 and are supposed to rob them of their nourishment, but this 

 is not satisfactorily proved ; on the contrary, it rather appears 

 that they live on the moisture of the atmosphere, which is 

 always the case where trees are closely crowded. The cir- 

 cumstance of lichens, and other mosses, living and growing 

 on the hardest granite, and even on iron, is an argument 

 against their robbing the trees of any share of nourishment. 

 As their roots are very minute, and incapable of insinuating 

 themselves into the bark of trees, it is probable that they do 

 not extract their nourishment from them, at least not to such 

 an extent as to injure them. Their appearance on fruit-trees 

 is more rationally accounted for on the following grounds. 

 We never see parasitic plants of the Cryptogamous class 

 growing on trees in a truly healthy state, but we uniformly 

 find them abounding on trees which are more or less in a state 

 of sickliness, and approaching to decay. The more un- 

 healthy a tree is, and particularly if its disease have been 

 brought on by being shaded, so as to prevent a free circula- 

 tion of air, the more profusely will it be found to be covered 

 with innumerable species of mosses and fungi. 



The tree must be already diseased, and the pores of the 

 epidermis closed up, and transpiration obstructed, before it 

 can be in a fit state to become the place of growth of those 

 vegetables. The juices of the trees must be first vitiated, from 

 some cause or other proceeding fi'om the soil or situation, and 

 the blight or mildew, which is a very minute parasitic fiingus, 



