GROWING THE NATIVE FLORA. 
19 
their habitat in the wild places, they may be grown 
from seeds, or else from cuttings. 
In removing the plants from the place where they 
have grown naturally, great care must be exercised 
in their transport. A small round trowel is best 
suited for their removal, one that is used for light 
gardening purposes, being about nine or ten inches 
long from top of handle to tip of blade. The blade 
is better round; this can then be inserted three or 
four times in the soil around the plant until a com- 
plete circle is cut, driving the trowel deeply into the 
soil. The plant may then be lifted out with a nice 
ball of soil compactly adhering and with the fibrous 
roots undamaged, which is very essential. The 
surplus soil may be lightly removed with the fingers, 
and then the plant with the ball of soil adhering, may 
be wrapped round with a piece of newspaper or with 
some nice long soft grass. The paper should not be 
harsh nor unyielding ; if so, it will be well to moisten 
it first. The plants may, when collected, be packed 
in a leather bag, or preferably in a box, with grass 
filling the intervening spaces, in which they can be 
safely carried for hundreds of miles. Some plants 
collected in this way were despatched nearly two 
hundred miles by coach, rail and carrier, and every 
one grew successfully. It may be said that plants 
have been removed from the bush and grown suc- 
cessfully without all this trouble. Exactly so ! I 
have had a similar experience, when, for experiment, 
I simply pulled a two-year-old Acacia verniciflua and 
an Aster myrsinoides from the soil at Dandenong, 
severing all soil and fibrous roots. After being out 
