436 
PLANTING AND TRANSPLANTING. 
PLANTING is usually understood as an ope- 
ration distinct from sowing, and differing in 
this particular, that while the latter consists 
in committing to the soil the seed or embryo 
of the future plant, the former applies to the 
fixing and adjustment in the soil, in the con- 
dition most favourable to its further growth, 
of the more or less developed vegetable which 
has resulted from the process of germination. 
It is well that this distinction should be main- 
tained, as it serves to render more defined 
and explicit the terms which are applied to 
these operations of vegetable culture. 
If we limit the meaning of the term " plant- 
ing," as above applied, to the more or less 
developed plant only, even then planting and 
transplanting remain, in reality, synonymous. 
There is, in fact, no palpable difference in 
signification between them, each operation 
consisting in the adjustment of the living 
plant in the soil, with the view to its further 
growth and development. A separate con- 
ventional meaning does, however, attach to the 
term " transplanting ;'' it being often applied 
specially to distinguish the planting and re- 
planting of small and young plants to and 
from nursery beds of rich soil, with the view 
to push on their development at a more rapid 
pace than ordinary, by means of the artificial 
stimulus thus brought to bear on the vital 
energies of the plants. This rapid development 
is by some considered to be occasioned by the 
production of a larger number of spongioles 
(that is, absorbing points) on the roots, in 
transplanted plants, than in such as have not 
been removed, but is perhaps as correctly re- 
ferred, by others, to the presence of the fresh 
supplies of food, which are thus made avail- 
able for their use. 
There are certain general principles which 
are conducive to the success of transferring 
a living plant from one locality to another ; 
and to these it will be proper first to advert. 
And, moreover, as the operation is one having 
direct reference to a vital being, it may be 
well to obtain also a notion of the constitution 
and character of that being. 
A plant, then, is endued with life — vege- 
table life ; it is an organized body, having 
functions to perform upon the exercise of 
which its health and continuance depend. 
For our purpose, as regards its nutrition, we 
may suppose a plant (confining ourselves to 
the more perfectly developed) to consist of 
three parts — an axis or stem, with which are 
connected a set of feeders (the fibrous roots 
and their spongioles), and a set of breathers 
or perspirers (the leaves) ; communications 
between these two sets of organs take place 
by means of the stem or axis, the leaves ela- 
borating the crude sap absorbed and trans- 
mitted to them from the rootlets, this elabo- 
rated sap, as it is said, forming the plastic 
material to which the plant owes its increased 
size, or the accession of new parts. When 
nature is left to herself, these two sets of 
organs are so balanced as to fit the plant for 
its allotted position in the universal world. 
But when the plant is placed under artificial 
conditions, as it is in a cultivated state, this 
balance is easily disturbed ; and hence it is 
that a knowledge of the functions of plants is 
so essential to successful cultivation. The 
act of transplanting at once destroys the 
equilibrium which has been referred to, by 
damaging the roots, and thus lessening the 
supply of food, while the perspiring apparatus 
is all the while at work ; and if circumstances 
favour rapid perspiration, the plant is propor- 
tionally more or less distressed in consequence. 
The ordinary means of remedying this incon- 
venience consists in lessening the perspiring 
surface, in order to bring down the demand 
to the supply ; this is done by pruning, so as 
to remove a portion of the leaves, or of the 
branches, which latter do perspire, though 
less rapidly than leaves. The branches per- 
spire less than the leaves, and both less in 
winter, or in dull, close weather, than in 
summer, or when there is brisk motion in the 
air ; and it is in consequence of this that deci- 
duous plants are most successfully removed, 
as a general rule, when they are leafless, and 
also that all plants are best removed (taking 
it again as a general rule) towards winter, or 
in close, dull weather. All this is practised 
with the view of producing an artificial state 
of equilibrium, in compensation for that which 
the act of transplanting has disturbed ; and 
the success is in proportion to the degree in 
which this is realized. And, moreover, trans- 
plantation may be successfully practised at 
any time that these conditions are attended 
to. Any plant may be removed at any time 
with perfect success, provided efficient means 
are used to counteract the disturbance of the 
balance between its two sets of organs, and 
to produce and maintain a state of artificial 
equilibrium until nature has re-established 
hers. 
"We may therefoi'e deduce as general prin- 
ciples applicable to planting of every kind, 
whether on the mountain top, or in the shel- 
tered nook, in the free soil, or in a flower-pot, 
— applicable whenever and wheresoever the 
operation is performed : 1st, The least possible 
degree of injury should be done to the roots, 
especially to the spongioles they bear ; 2d, 
