chap, iii.] TRANSPLANTING. 
59 
them up entire, the plant will be nearly 
famished before new spongioles can be form¬ 
ed to supply it with food. All these dangers 
are avoided by the nursery system of trans¬ 
planting; while the inconvenience of con¬ 
fining the roots to so small a space is ob¬ 
viated, by placing the plant, every time it is 
transplanted, in fresh soil. 
It is customary, when trees or shrubs are 
transplanted to the places where they are 
permanently to remain, either to make a 
puddle for them, or to fix them, as it is 
called, with water; the object, in both cases, 
being to supply the plant with abundance of 
food in its new situation. Care is taken, 
also, to make the roots firm in the soil, and 
to let the earth penetrate through all their 
interstices. To attain these ends, one gar¬ 
dener generally holds the tree and gently 
shakes it, while another is shovelling in the 
earth among its roots; but this mode has the 
disadvantage of sometimes occasioning the 
roots to become matted. When the tree is 
to be fixed with water, after a little earth has 
been shovelled in over the roots, water is 
applied by pouring it from a watering-pot, 
