PLANTING AND TRANSPLANTING. 
403 
the former surface soil, or some other fine 
compost substituted for it. This last plan 
is generally followed, with more or less of 
nicety in the execution, in the planting of 
florists' flowers, as it admits of a more even 
and regular distribution of the bulbs, both as, 
regards position and depth. The smaller class 
of bulbs and tubers, such as anemones and 
snowdrops, should be planted about two inches 
deep ; larger ones, as tulips and hyacinths, 
about four inches ; and still larger ones, such 
as those of many kinds of lily, six inches 
beneath the surface. These depths admit of 
variation for special objects ; thus, the bulbs 
may be planted a trifle deeper, as a means of 
protection from severe frosts in the case of 
those least able to bear its rigours. The dis- 
tance at which the bulbs are placed admits of 
considerable variation; where they are planted 
in beds in a regular and formal manner, 
rather less than their respective heights may 
be taken as a good mean distance, but if they 
are planted in patches, they may stand much 
nearer together, the largest not requiring to 
be more than six inches asunder ; and the 
smaller ones should be placed within an inch 
or two of each other, and so as to form large- 
sized patches. The smaller bulbs planted as 
edgings should form a close double row. 
Planting Aquatics. — Such plants as are 
placed near the margin of water, may be 
planted in the bank by inserting a spade, 
pushing it in opposite directions to form a 
small chasm, into which the roots are to be 
forced, and the plants fixed by pressing the 
soil firmly about them with the foot. It is 
sufficient to fix merely such plants as these 
aquatics, for they grow with the greatest 
freedom. The chief difficulty lies in fixing 
those which, requiring deeper water, have to 
be placed at some distance from the bank ; 
such are the various kinds of water-lily. A 
ready means of fixing them, consists in placing 
around their rootstocks a heavy lump of clay; 
they may then be dropped into the places 
allotted for them, and when once fairly 
started will take care of themselves. Another 
plan is, to plant them in wicker baskets filled 
with heavy mud, which are then dropped into 
the places where they are required. 
Planting Seedlings. — By this is intended 
the nursery transplantation of seedlings while 
in their infant state ; which operations bear 
the common designation of "pricking out." 
Where seedling plants have eventually to be 
transplanted, this pricking out is of much 
advantage to them in the way of preparation ; 
it checks the formation of the leading or tap- 
root, which almost all plants naturally pro- 
duce, and favours the emission of a much 
larger number of lateral roots and fibres, so 
that plants which have been pricked out, are 
in a more favourable condition for subsequent 
transplantation than they would be if allowed 
to grow on undisturbed from the first. In 
the case of vegetable crops intended for trans- 
plantation, it is customary to prick them out 
as soon as about a pair of leaves besides the 
cotyledons or seed-lobes are expanded. A piece 
of ground is wrought to a fine surface, and 
the plants being raised up with a thin-pointed 
and flattened piece of wood, so as not to break 
their roots, are inserted at equal distances all 
over the ground, at one, two, or three inches 
apart, varying according to the size of the 
plants and the length of time they are in- 
tended to remain in that position. If the 
subject be a choice one, the young plants are 
"lifted carefully, so as not to damage any half- 
germinated seeds ; and a second or third crop 
is transplanted from the same seed-bed, as the 
plants attain sufficient size. Sometimes, in 
the early part of the year, — the object being 
chiefly to afford protection and to forward 
particular crops, — seeds are sown either in 
a frame or in boxes or pans; and the seedlings 
also are transplanted or pricked out into other 
frames, boxes, or pans, in which they are 
protected in accordance with the object in 
raising them. The plants are inserted in the 
ground by means of a blunt-pointed stick 
large enough to form, when thrust into the 
soil, a hole fully as large as the diameter of 
the mass of soil and roots adhering to the 
plants ; this is thrust into the ground in a 
slightly slanting direction, and deep enough 
to allow of the roots being 
laid straight ; the plant is 
placed so that the seed- 
lobes are a little above the 
surface, and it is then fixed 
by pressing in the soil on 
the upper or front part by 
the point of the dibble ; in doing this, it is 
necessary to take care that the hole is filled 
to the very bottom, or the roots become sus- 
pended over a chasm, and are thus in some 
measure prevented from striking into the soil. 
The seeds of flowering plants are sown 
and the young seedlings treated in a similar 
manner to that just described ; only, as they 
are commonly more choice, often smaller, and 
less numerous, the operation is perhaps per- 
formed with more nicety and care, finer soil 
and smaller dibbles being employed, and the 
plants removed as soon as their seed-lobes have 
become fairly expanded. The operation is 
not otherwise different in the two cases. 
When seedlings are raised of any kind of 
plant requiring peculiar soil, the seedlings 
should have that kind of soil, rendered more 
than commonly porous by the addition of 
sand; indeed, in all cases soil of rather a sandy 
texture is preferable for the purpose, as it 
