TlIJi STOVE. 



29 



decay." In preparing the roots of the plants, previously to 

 their being repotted, he justly reprobates an old and erroneous 

 practice, long pertinaciously adhered to by cultivators of the 

 old school, that is, " that of paring off' the best part of the 

 roots with a knife, that is the tips or ends of the fibres, which 

 are undoubtedly the active agents in collecting the food for the 

 stem, &c. Then, without ever loosening the remaining part 

 of the ball, set in the new pot with a little fresh earth thrown 

 loosely about it : as a matter of course they think it must be 

 completely drenched or flooded from the water-pot; and 

 lastly, to crown the whole, perhaps immediately set it in a 

 pan of water, when, if they only took time to consider the 

 mutilated state to which they have reduced the roots, it is 

 impossible they could ever conceive them to be in a state fit 

 to undergo sudh treatment with ;iny kind of advantage. But it 

 is the misfortune of many, who will not for a moment hesitate 

 to undertake the care of tender and curious plants, as a matter 

 easily understood, yet will not take the trouble of judging for 

 themselves to follow the old tract of cutting and watering, the 

 same, as they may have before seen practised on the hardiest 

 geraniums or myrtles. Though the method may not seem to 

 hurt some few kinds of strong freely growing plants, yet it 

 never can be allowed as a proper mode of treatment for all 

 plants indiscriminately, because they may happen to have a 

 good portion of roots : indeed more plants have been destroyed 

 by this practice than by any other particular part of the sys- 

 tem of management which some so blindly follow. There are 

 instances, however, wherein a knife is necessary to the roots, 

 as well as the branches, viz. when they become broken, or 

 otherwise contaminated, and also to such as are propagated 

 by cuttings of the roots, as some species of Geranium may be, 

 some Mimosce also, and indeed any that are observed to pro- 

 duce suckers ; in all such cases they should be taken off* with 

 precision, and a sufficiency left to support the parent, if con- 

 sidered worth preserving. In turning the plant carefully out 

 of the pot, observe if the roots have perforated it in any part, 

 so as to render it imi)Ossiblc to part them without breaking 

 the one, or lacerating the other, in which case prefer the for- 

 mer as the slightest damage : however, when the ball of roots 



