204 
TRANSPLANTING. 
transplanted trees and shrubs are, by reason of the recent change 
in their position, but inadequately supplied with food when the 
greatest demand is made upon their sustaining powers. Very 
early spring planting, it is true, is less objectionable in a theoretic 
view, but then the state of the weather, or the ground, renders it 
almost impracticable, for either the latter is so wet that the least 
trampling reduces it to puddle, or the surface is frozen, and 
planting of an ordinary kind is out of the question. All these 
reasons lead to the conclusion that the spring months are not 
the most desirable time for transplanting, for though instances 
may be adduced in support of such a view, and a wet summer 
would certainly prevent much loss among recently moved things, 
yet we cannot foretell with any degree of certainty what the season 
may be, and if we can avoid the evils attendant on late planting 
by performing the work at another time, it would be unwise to 
incur a useless risk. 
It may be gathered from what we have before said respecting 
evaporation, that in the autumn, instead of their remaining any 
demand upon the roots, from the period the leaves begin to 
decline, the action of the fluid secretions is reversed, and the 
roots then receive their principal nutriment. The mere fact of a 
cessation in the perspiratory process, should be sufficient to 
determine us in favour of autumnal planting, as it is evident there 
can be then no loss, and but little stoppage in the vital functions 
of the plant, for though, as will necessarily happen, the roots are 
mutilated in the removal, the downward passage of the sap im¬ 
mediately supplies a remedy, and instead of a serious evil, the 
result is rather of an opposite tendency, for the granulations then 
formed at the wounded end of the fibre, in the course of the 
winter are developed in the form of more spongelets, and the tree 
is positively benefited by the addition of more useful roots. Nor 
is there any material difference in this respect between deciduous 
and evergreen plants, for though the latter retain their foliage 
throughout the year, the epidermis or outer coat of the leaves 
becomes thicker and hardened by the autumn to an extent which 
reduces their evaporating powers to almost a nullity, and their 
roots are in precisely the position of those of the opposite class ; 
the amount of perspiration which may still go on in the ever¬ 
green, should rather induce us to prefer the autumn to any other 
