128 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



PT. II 



tliey are cut at the beginning of winter, all circulation 

 of tlie sap must be destroyed tlirougli the whole Avinter, 

 till the plant can shoot out again in the spring ; since 

 the communication between the wood and the bark is 

 annihilated : for, in winter, the buds form the points 

 of junction between the upward current of the sap in 

 the wood and the downward current in the bark. I 

 imagine that this circulation and elaboration do go on 

 in the winter ; that m the early part of winter actual 

 new growth of the root is often going on ; and that 

 during the whole of winter the new growth is solidi- 

 fying and becoming woody. 



I consider it a proof both of the existence and of 

 the necessity of this winter circulation and elaboration 

 of the sap, that shrubs which are headed at the begin- 

 ning of winter are very liable to break out ; they then 

 suffer much from the frost. Besides this, the hoarded 

 elaborated sap, which would be of infinite value for the 

 spring outbreak, is wasted on this false start, not to 

 mention the annihilation of any winter buds which may 

 have been on the plants below where they were cut. 

 When I have cut down sycamores in August, of about 

 twenty years' growth, I have known them make this 

 unnatural effort to relieve their roots from suffocation ; 

 and I have observed the leaves on the shoots which 

 they have then thrown out green to the middle of the 

 succeeding January. Plants which do not ripen their 

 wood, and which are annually killed in parts by frost, 

 such as fuchsias, verbenas, &c., should not be cut till 



