THE ELOEAL WOULD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 
319 
learned that they had been well dipped at root and copiously watered 
when planted. In Guernsey, where the Evergreen Oak is much 
employed for shelter on the most exposed places, where, in tact, it is 
often covered with salt spray, they remove large specimens of it 
with perfect safety at midsummer. If the plant to be removed has 
a very large head in proportion to the roots, some of its branches are 
shortened back, but no other precautions are taken to ensure success. 
A failure is very rare indeed. The damp climate of the island of 
course contributes mainly to this success ; for no newly-planted tree 
sutlers more from the effects of evaporation from its leaves than the 
Evergreen Oak. When subjected to a cry atmosphere with a feeble 
root action, as a recently planted tree would naturally be in our 
climate, then speedy dissolution from dessication of the tissues would 
almost certainly follow. How this evaporation from the leaves and 
succulent branches of newly-planted trees is the primary cause of 
their failure, and in proportion as it can be guarded against or 
compensated for, so will success be found. 
-Deciduous trees when moved, as they must generally be, when 
the leaf has fallen, are of course not subject to the draining of their 
juices by evaporation to a like extent — a condition which gives them 
in some respects an advantage over evergreens in sustaining the 
casualties of transplanting. How nothing favours evaporation so 
much as a dry moving atmosphere ; as, for instance, during bright 
windy days in March. From this circumstance that month is deemed, 
and rightly too, the worst in which to transplant evergreens through- 
out the year. Ho one who can possibly avoid it should attempt it 
then. It is easy to imagine that, from the constant passing away of 
the fluids of a plant with no means of replenishing them, the 
individual must soon cease to exist. And in March, too, vegetation 
is often inactive as at midwinter, which circumstance, coupled with 
its iuvariably dry atmosphere, is an additional reason for not planting 
then. 
When a shrub or tree is transplanted it should be under conditions 
which will allow it to recommence growth immediately, to enable it, 
by absorbing at the roots, to counteract the loss of fluid at the 
leaves. To insure this the plant must be removed before it is 
completely at rest in the autumn, or after vegetation has commenced 
in spring. At either of these periods nature immediately sets about 
repairing any injury which the plant may have received. The roots 
which are destroyed, and many will inevitably be so, are then 
replaced by others, the work of nutrition goes on, and ihe natural 
functions of the plant are resumed. If you examine a shrub that 
has been transplanted while vegetation was active in autumn, even a 
few days after its removal, you will perceive the roots covered with 
myriads of white shining points ; the new rootlets in fact hastening 
to re-establish the plant before winter sets in and renders the 
vegetative principle all hut inert. Plants require both at root and 
branch a certain degree of warmth to enable them to fully perform 
their functions. Iu autumn the soil retains a considerable amount 
of heat, and is favourable to the formation of roots. In midwinter 
this is not apparent, even though the weather should be open, for 
October. 
