yf. ^anndi if ' s4utumn ^ataiogue. 43 
cause, ■with the practical thinking mind, can very often be seen pretty clearly. A doctor’s character 
and value are estimated by the family exactly by the skill and the amount of common sense that 
are adopted and applied in getting the patient well according to Nature’s laws, so are gardeners’ abilities 
estimated in a similar way ; and respecting the .getting of patients well of whatever may be the 
matter, the more clearly the doctor sees and understands the nature of the case and advises and acts 
accordingly, so will the ailing sooner recover (or the removed tree assume its former vigour), and the 
better character will he obtain in the eyes of those who are anxious to see all live happily. The great 
secret, when a patient or plant is undergoing a severe and dangerous operation, is to keep up the 
strength and vigour — to lose this, the end is surely near. It should be remembered there is 
no twig or leaf — no, not even the smallest tendril, but what has its roots supporting it, and exactly 
vice, versa. 
I ask any practical man interested to stand in front of 
n tree or shrub : think of the innumerable little feeding roots 
penetrating and burrowing in all directions in the soil during all 
weathers, absorbing large quantities of moisture or food and sending 
it up to the leaves. Think when a powerful digger comes and 
■thrusts in a 10-inch steel-pronged fork and brings up a good-sized 
forkful of soil : wash this and get out the small rootlets ; the 
number it contains will bo surprising ; multiply these all round 
and beneath the plant, and imagine a plant enjoying them to-day, 
and without them and food or drink to-morrow, in a drying wind 
and sun, so contrary to their usual condition at this time. 
When ruthlessly wrenched up in the way labourers usually do, it is 
surprising that any live at all, as you will find scarcely any of these 
important rootlets, and probably only hard woody parts of roots that 
steady it against the wind are left ; these substances have little or 
■no means beyond their spongy nature of sucking up a very small 
amount of moisture for nourishing and supporting the plant until it 
emits or makes new white roots from the hard wood, which even 
in the most favourable weather, will take at least a fortnight. Even 
•then the supply is small and can only be scanty for months, and par- 
ticularly if removal has been done during very cold frosty weather, 
so the top branches have little or no more than the sap that exists 
in the stems or body of the plant. This is the dangerous time. 
Every day the plant must have sap to send up to supply its wood 
and foliage against wind and sun, even if the season is particularly 
dry, windy or sunny, and the moment it can get no more the foliage 
droops, the wood turns bronzy yellow, and the bark becomes ribbed 
or furred ; these are sure signs that the top of the plant is dying. 
True, some trees will break from the stem, or even from the 
bottom, but practically it is useless, and the sooner it is up and 
replaced the bettor. And yet trees — like human beings — if 
healthy will endure a great deal of hardship and struggle for dear 
life ; all kinds of hardy plants, if carefully taken up, the roots kept 
perfectly moist and well covered, and replanted quickly and care- 
fully in the ordinary way and trodden down firmly, at the proper 
time, will live and flourish, and no one need have any fear after 
reading and understanding the meaning and points of the subjects in this paper respecting them. 
Let us look at this tree (see illustration), and note the enormous difference between the top and 
its roots. Is it to be supposed it can stand up, without support, against wind? It must be quite 
apparent that a plant so removed from its former home and soil, where hundreds and even 
thousands of tiny white roots that were feeding and doing their daily work are suddenly cut and torn 
away, must be undergoing an almost sure-death operation, and it is here that the physician should 
step in and say, “ Unless you consent for me to reduce its branches to a reasonable proportion, owing 
to what has occurred in reducing its roots, I will not be answerable for its life j let me do this, even 
to the disfigurement of the plant.” But in nearly every case, with an eye for uniformity, trees and 
shrubs in particular can be cut in to advantage here and there, and so improve their shape and beauty ; 
this may be done either before they are taken up or directly afterwards, and it will then certainly be 
I’INUS STROBUS. 
(WEYMOUTH PINE.) 
