December 13. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
141 
chiefly, that we are to expect the most certain rules 
of practice, yet it is, withal, to be remembered that 
the likeliest method to enable us to make the most 
judicious observations, and to put us upon the most 
probable means of improving any art, is to get the 
best insight we can into the nature and properties of 
those things which we are desirous to cultivate and 
improve.” This only strengthened the views of both 
parties still more firmly, as also did the following 
remarks by the author in the beginning of his preface. 
“ It is, I confess, surprising to me, that the real nature 
of the vital actions” (the living principle) “ of plants, 
and of the external forces by which they are regulated, 
should be so frequently misapprehended even among 
writers upon horticulture ; and that ideas relating to 
such matters, so very incorrect as wo frequently lind 
them to be, should obtain among intelligent men in 
the present state of what I may be pcrmitcd to call 
horticultural physiology.” But the strangest part 
of the story is yet to be told. The Doctor proved 
by his “ Theory” that both parties were quite right, 
and they had no occasion to make any fuss on a 
matter so really simple. The drift of his explana¬ 
tions may be summed thus:—If you remove a tree 
without much hurting its roots, you will have no 
reason to prune away any of the branches, for the 
more leaves it has the sooner it will renew any of the 
roots that may have received any slight injury. On 
the contrary, if a tree is taken up badly, or, which is 
the same thing, if its roots are so situated that you 
cannot possibly get them all out without cutting part 
of them, then some pruning is necessary, because 
the large surface of leaves would empty the tree of 
its juices by perspiration faster than the roots in 
their crippled state would supply them. Now, any 
one well versed in the subject, and knowing the 
heartburnings which the question caused at the time, 
must see clearly enough that the author here weakened 
his own authority in thus striving to please both 
parties, or, at any rate, his anxiety not to displease 
either. A commendable policy with our intercourse 
with the world, but the last on which an independent 
mind should lean when dealing on the truths of 
science. The real state of the question stands thus, 
and we cannot gainsay it:—No man, or set of men, 
ever lived, or ever shall live, according to the present 
constitution of things, who could, or can, transplant 
a large tree without injuring its roots, and that very 
materially, and it is a mistake which almost all of 
us fall into to suppose that the power of the leaves 
for good is according to their number. Ten strong 
powerful leaves in a healthy vigorous state will do 
more good than live times the number in a languid 
state, as they are often seen to be the first year or 
two after a tree is removed. Therefore, the great aim 
of the planter should be to prepare his trees before 
their removal, so that whatever the number of the loaves 
may be in the following season, every one of them 
should be in a flourishing condition, for unless they 
are so it is needless to look for a speedy restoration 
of the roots or branches. All ornamental trees and 
shrubs, particularly the latter, will require a little 
pruning, more or less, every season; but when the 
subject has been well attended to for years, all that 
will be needed can be easily done in summer during 
the growing season. When a tree or bush begins to 
get naked below, it is a sure sign that it ought to 
have been pruned long since, or that the situation is 
too crowded for it, for nakodness produced by starva¬ 
tion or old age always begins at the top of the plant. 
How plants bocome naked at the bottom is this : 
the first two or three tiers of the lower branches get 
j over-topped by some of those immediately above 
them, and these, by throwing off the rain and obstruct¬ 
ing the sun from them, soon cause them to dwindle 
: away by degrees until they die outright, and leave a 
naked void. This is the most common case of bad 
management, and it often results from a mischievous 
doctrine which has taken hold of some people’s brains, 
and which they never cease pushing at you right and 
left. In the park and forest, it is all very well to see 
plants growing in their own way, and a naturalist 
may go and enjoy them their until their toes get frost¬ 
bitten, for aught that a gardener can have any objec¬ 
tion ; but within the boundary of the garden every 
plant ought to be attended to as carefully as if it 
were grown in a pot for a London exhibiton; staked, 
trained, and pruned as regularly as a geranium. But 
having occupied so much with these general remarks, 
1 must put off the subject of pruning to another day, 
and meantime, any tree or shrub, or climber, which 
looks stunted, or in an impoverished state, ought to 
be examined at the roots, beginning by making a 
trench outside of the roots, as our Editor advised to 
take up the Magnolia, at page 14, and after freeing 
the tops of the roots a little, and all the way round, 
shovel out all the poor soil, and fill the trench with a 
good compost of fresh soil and some rotten dung. 
If the plant is on the grass, put a layer of the bad 
soil under the turf before you replace it. 
D. Beaton. 
GREENHOUSE AND WINDOW 
GARDENING. 
Protecting Plants, &c.—So mild and open lias 
been the autumn, that we began to think the ilower- 
garden would retain its beauty until Christmas. 
Much as our husbandmen may grumble at low 
prices, they must own that the season has been 
almost unparalleled for autumn sowing, and moving 
and stirring the soil. When writing last week, many 
groups of salvias, dahlias, calceolarias, &c.,* were 
nearly as gay as they were in September, but a frost 
of some 14 degrees, on the 28th of November, settled 
all their pretensions to beauty for this season. So 
sudden and unexpected was the frost, that many 
plough teams had to return to the farm-yards, after 
vainly attempting to penetrate the iron-like soil; and 
some of us had to put our wits into requisition, as to 
the means of saving many rather tender favourites 
that had been supplied with merely temporary and 
partial protection, that they might be rendered more 
hardy and sturdy than they would have been if trans¬ 
ferred at once to their winter quarters. 
In all these schemes for keeping the hardier green¬ 
house and bedding-out plants as long out of the house 
or pit as possible, dryness in the situation should 
constitute the first consideration. For promoting 
this object, the ground upon which the plants stand 
should be higher than the ground level, and if bot¬ 
tomed with concrete or asphalt, all the better, as the 
damp would thus be prevented rising so freely. 
Whatever the means of occasional protection you 
employ, whether glass, asphalt, felt, or varnished 
calico, let it be such as will effectually exclude rain; 
as much of the success will depend upon keeping 
the plants dry, the atmosphere at this season furnish¬ 
ing nearly as much moisture as they will require in 
* An old calceolaria, a very free bloomer, but with small yellow 
flowers, named rugosa, is the best for late autumn work, as it pre¬ 
sents a dense mass of yellow long after the beauty of the larger and 
better kinds has been upon the wane. Small plants are useful for 
lighting up and contrasting with other colours in a window. 
