46 
ON REMOVING DETACHED TREES. 
air night and day, if the weather will permit. They must, however, be carefully 
preserved from frost. Top-dress them with a little fresh soil about the end of 
February or beginning- of March, taking- away a portion of the old soil. About 
the middle 'of May, plung-e the boxes or pots in the open ground, and water them 
until the tops die. When this is the case, take them up and treat them as old 
roots ; and the year following they will in general flower. 
A good Ranunculus should have a strong stem, from eight to twelve inches 
high. The flower should be perfectly round, at least two inches in diameter, con- 
sisting of numerous petals, gradually diminishing in size to the centre, lying over 
each other, so as neither to be too close nor too much separated, but having more 
of a perpendicular than of a horizontal direction, in order to display the colours 
with better effect. The petals with entire rounded edges, their colours dark, clear, 
rich, or brilliant ; either of one colour, or variously diversified on an ash, white, 
sulphur, or fire coloured ground, or else regularly striped, spotted, or mottled, in 
an elegant manner. 
ON REMOVING AND SUPPORTING DETACHED TREES, 
OR PLANTING SHRUBBERIES FOR ORNAMENT. 
All deciduous trees it is wished to remove should be done as early as possible 
in this month, before the buds expand. Evergreens, in general, if taken up care- 
fully, may be planted with success at any season of the year, providing dull or 
dripping weather be taken advantage of for the purpose. There are particular 
seasons, however, when they will thrive with much greater freedom than at others. 
If the situation be dry, and the soil light and sandy, they should be planted (with 
the exception of hollies) in November and December, if the weather be mild ; on 
the other hand, if the situation be low, and the soil retentive of moisture, they 
should be planted in May. In both cases, it is indispensable that all large trees or 
shrubs be removed with good balls, and that the roots be uninjured. Hollies, if 
planted in any situation, should always be removed from the end of May to the end 
of June. 
In detailing the method of removing large trees, whether deciduous or evergreens, 
we cannot improve upon the system of E. Jesse, Esq. given in the Horticultural 
Register, Vol. I. p. 760. Excavate the earth at some distance from the tree ; leaving 
all the principal fibres, and the earth adhering to them, in a compact ball, undermining 
as much as possible, and taking care not to shake or injure the ball by twisting the 
stem of the tree, or using it as a lever to loosen the tap roots ; when this is done, 
and a hole made where the tree is to be placed, adopt the following mode : — Two 
pieces of iron must be previously formed, of the breadth and thickness of a common 
cart-wheel tire, three or four inches wide, rather more than half an inch thick, and 
about six feet long, bent in the form of the figure, which 
will reduce it to three feet across. This will do for trees 
requiring from two to four men to lift them ; but a size 
larger and stronger in proportion will be wanted for trees which will require eight 
