74 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



selected from some nursery where the conditions of life, at least 

 as far as exposure and temperature are concerned, are less 

 favourable than they are in the locality to which they are to be 

 transplanted. Certainly the converse is true, as no one would, 

 on principle, willingly expose to the hurtful agencies of the 

 streets plants taken from more sheltered and wholesome situa- 

 tions. 



Nevertheless, in practice, it is not always possible to avoid 

 this, and such is the accommodating nature of plants, that, 

 granted an ordinary amount of judgment in the selection, 

 adequate care in preparing the soil for their reception, and due 

 provision for their welfare after planting, a difference of a few 

 degrees of latitude or of a few hundreds of feet of altitude will 

 practically make no difference. 



In planting care should be exercised in spreading the roots, 

 so that they may not become entangled one with another, but 

 may grow evenly on all sides, and thus be enabled to avail 

 themselves of food in every direction. 



The error of too deep planting should also be avoided.* The 

 tree should be firmly planted, and supplied with a stake to pre- 

 vent rocking aod displacement until the roots have grown into 

 the soil, and are enabled to " hold on." The stake should be 

 high enough to prevent the head of the tree from being snapped 

 off by a gust of wind — a circumstance very likely to happen if 

 the stake be too short in proportion to the trunk. 



In attaching the tree to the stake, the tie, of whatever nature 

 it be, should be elastic or loosely applied, so as to "give" a 

 little under pressure and allow of a little swaying motion. In- 

 attention to these matters is very likely to result in the breaking 

 away of the head from the trunk of the tree. The woodcuts, 

 borrowed from the pages of the Gardeners 1 Chronicle, will illus- 



* In the neighbourhood of London several instances are familiar to the 

 speaker which seem to show that deep planting and the exclusion of air are 

 not so injurious as generally supposed. In one case the trunk of a Labur- 

 num is, and has been for thirty years, buried in a bank of earth nearly to 

 the point where the first branches are given off. In another case a Maple 

 {Acer monspessulanum) , formerly growing in a garden, now finds itself in 

 the footpaths of a street with the flag-stones close to its base. A Pear-tree 

 is in like case, but neither seems the worse. The explanation probably is 

 that the feeding root-fibres are far away beyond the obstruction, and where 

 access of air and water is not precluded. 



