24 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Amin 12, 1859. 
same result; tlxo wound citatrised, and the root sent out lateral 
divisions. 
When a root ceases of its own accord to elongate, it sends out 
also lateral fibres, though less vigorously, and with less rapidity 
than in the above cases. The lateral branches of perpendicular 
roots arc always the more vigorous the nearer they are to the 
trunk ; but the lateral branches' of horizontal rools are the less 
vigorous the nearer they are to the trunk. In the former case, the 
increased luxuriance is, perhaps, owing to the easy access of ! 
oxygen in the upper divisions ; but in the latter case the increased 
luxuriance of the more distant divisions is not so easily accounted 
for, if it is not to be attributed to thS more ample supply of nutri¬ 
ment which the fibres meet with as they recede from the trunk, 
particularly if you suppose a number of them lying horizontally, J 
and diverging like the radii of a circle. 
But the direction of roots is so liable to be effected by accidental 
causes, that there is olteu but little uniformity, even in roots of I 
the same species. If plants were to be sown in a soil of the j 
same density throughout, perhaps there might be at least as much 
uniformity in the figure and direction of their roots as of their 
branches ; but this will seldom happen. For if the root is 
injured by the attacks of insects, or interrupted by stones, or 
earth of too dense a quality, it then sends out lateral branches, 
as iu the above cases ; sometimes extending also in length by 
following the direction of the obstacle, and sometimes ceasing to [ 
elongate, and forming a knot at the extremity. But where the 
soil has been loosened by digging, or otherwise, t he root generally 
extends itself to an unusual length. This, Du Hamel has 
illustrated by the following cases:—If a trench is opened at a 
small distance from a young tree, and immediately filled up again 
with loose earth, the roots which enter the trench will continue to 
follow its direction, and will send out but few lateral branches. 
And if part of the trench is filled up with earth of a superior 
quality, or with earth mixed with manure, the greater number of 
divisions will be directed to that quarter. Trees, also, that are 
planted by the banks of a river extend their branches chiefly in 
the direction of the river, without sending out many lateral 
branches. Whore the earth is very loose, the roots are generally 
weak ; because, having no obstacle to overcome, they have extended 
to an undue length. Hence the roots of plants vegetat ing in pots, 
but especially in water, are the weakest; but where roots have 
some considerable obstacle to overcome, they will often acquire a 
strength proportioned to the difficulty: sometimes they will 
penetrate the hardest soil to get at a soil more nutritive, and 
sometimes they will insinuate tlieiv fibres into the crevices even of 
walls and rocks, which they will burst or overturn. This, of 
course, requires much time, and does much injury to the plant. 
Hoots, consequently, thrive best in a soil that is neither too loose 
nor too dense.— ( Keith's Vegetable Physiology.) 
The distance to which the roots of a plant extend is much 
greater than is usually imagined; and one reason of the stunted ! 
growth of plants in a poor soil is, that the sap collected and 
elaborated by them has to be expended in the extension of the 
roots, which have to be larger in proportion as the pasturage near 
home is scanty. An Acorn, accidentally deposited on a wall, pro¬ 
duced a young Oak ; but this made no progress until its root had 
descended the whole height of the wall, and had penetrated the 1 
soil at its base. 
In deep, poor, siliceous soils, we have traced the roots of trees 
from twelve to fourteen feet perpendicular without reaching their \ 
termination. Those of the Canada Thistle, seven feet; common 
Fern, eight feet; Wheat, thirty inches; Oats, twenty-four inches ; 
Potatoes, eighteen inches ; Guions, twenty inches ; Carrots, Par¬ 
snips, and Beet, two feet. 
Sir. Cary Tyso, the well-known florist at Wallingford, thus 
relates his observations on the distance to which the roots of 
Mignonette will extend :—“ I was invited by a gentleman of this 
town to inspect a plant of Slignouettc, which had penetrated 
through several courses of bricks, and descended far into a wine- 
cellar. Over the cellar, which was outside the dwelling-house, j 
was a brick pavement; between the joints of which Mignonette ! 
seed had been sown from year to year. A plant or two, where j 
there was more soil, grew more vigorously than the rest, though ! 
not so luxuriantly as it often docs in a common border. The 
roots off these plants had penetrated through eighteen inches of 
brickwork; and some of them were hanging inside the arched 
roof of the cellar, nourished by the damp atmosphere only. A 
few' more favourably situated were attached to the end wall of the 
cellar, and had descended five feet five inches down the wall into 
the decaying sawdust of the wine-bin. Others were beautifully 
spread over the wall, with a thousand branching rootlets be¬ 
spangled with minute crystal-like damp-drops, and extending 
over a space of five feet in width. It was difficult to trace the 
brittle roots in the sawdust; but I measured some upwards of 
seven feet below the surface of the brickwork in which the plants 
were growing.” 
The distance to which roots will travel, and their tenacity of 
life, render them, often, very obnoxious to the gardener. Thus 
the common Couch Grass (Tritieum repens ), is the most trouble¬ 
some of weeds, for every fragment of its far-spreading-roots will 
vegetate; and the Sweet-scented Coltsfoot, the Periwinkle 
( Vinca ), and Lemon Mint, are no less to be avoided, for the same 
causo renders them extremely difficult of extirpation, and they 
never can be kept within moderate bounds. Yet these creeping- 
rooted plants are not to be condemned without exception : lor, 
whoever has grounds under his care bordering upon the sea-shore, 
the sands of which are troublesomely light and shifting, may have 
them effectually bound down by inoculating them with slips of 
the roots of these grasses, Elymus arenarius, Carex arenaria, and 
Arundo arenaria. 
The roots of plants, unless frozen, are constantly imbibing 
nourishment, and even developing parts ; for if the roots of trees 
planted during a mild winter be examined after an interval ol a 
few weeks, they will be found to have emitted fresh radicles. The 
food they imbibe is slowly elaborated in the vessels of the stem 
and branches, and there deposited.—J. 
(To be continued.) 
NET-PEOTECTING FEUIT BLOSSOMS—THE 
ESPEEIONE GEAPE. 
Fob protecting the blossoms of early fruit, allow me to speak 
with all praise of netting. Ascend a ladder, and drive the ends 
of some stoutish poles, slopmgly and firmly, four feet apart, into 
the border, about four feet from the wall, and let their topmost 
ends come to rest immediately under the coping. Drive a nail as 
high as possible in the front face of each pole, and hitch on to 
the nails three layers of old mended herring nets ; strain these 
layers of netting down the poles, and fix them there with moro ; 
hitch three other layers beneath, and on to the nails last driven, 
and secure them as above; when it will prove a sufficient pro¬ 
tection for any wall trees Then iu bloom. 
These layers of netting may be taken off gradually as the 
season advances ; the last layer, along with the poles, being re¬ 
moved when the majority of the fruit has gained a quarter of an 
inch in diameter. 
1 have tried many methods for protecting blossoms : and one in 
which 1 thought 1 had done it, hi the year before I was made 
acquainted with the net system (1850), ended so disastrous, that I 
am induced to publish it as a caution. I remember I wished 
particularly to preserve the blossoms of the only two established 
trees I then had, and they were growing against the house. Of 
course, I was reading and digesting Mr. Errington’s articles—in 
effect so much so, that 1 became nerved sufficiently to rush into 
print for the first time. Well, my trees were Apricots, eighteen 
feet high; so I procured Ash poles in proportion, and with tack¬ 
ling that would have done honour to the mainsail of a ship, made 
so to act that some old moreen curtains could be drawn up and 
down at pleasure ; but the action of the wind so bellied the 
dense material up against tlio trees, that when storms prevailed 
they kept me dancing attendance night and day; and, truly, if 
any place could honestly claim to be dubbed the Temple of the 
Winds, surely I maintain it is this. 
One stormy morning—and tlio Fates having ordained me to be 
some one hundred miles from my proteges —the wind blew the 
concern bodily away, and part of the trees along with it, fracturing 
a stone window-sill, and frightening two female domestics nearly 
to their wits’ end. 
Now', several thicknesses of netting would not have been liable 
to this mishap : they would have let t lie wind through sufficiently, 
kept oil' the frosts effectually, admitted the sun without the bother 
of drawing up and down the sails constantly—all of which I have 
since proved satisfactorily, and never more to the purpose than 
this present season of fine early bloom, sharp frosts, and cutting 
winds. In fact, this very day (March 30th) we have a heavy fall 
of enow, which, as it alights, is caught upon (he nets, forming in 
front of the trees an almost transparent canopy, beneath which 
the infant fruit and blossoms remain quite secure; and if we get 
