will scarcely remedy the abruptness of the transition; while the mixture of a few of the older plants with the younger, and of the younger with the older, would accomplish it almost at once.

Among the most available plants for mixing in small masses. of plantation, or treating as single specimens, to produce an immediate appearance, and break the outline, are the various kinds of ornamental Thorn, Mespilus, Pyrus, double-flowering Cherry, some sorts of Prunus, Sorbus, flowering Ash, weeping Ash and Elm, and other deciduous low trees, which are not very expensive, and can easily be moved. Larger evergreens are, perhaps, more telling, and will do much towards concealing bad objects; but they are also more costly, and their success is rather doubtful, or, at any rate, they recover the change more slowly. Any description of forest or ornamental tree will bear removal admirably, with care and attention, and will not be permanently worse for the shift, if they are not more than twenty-five or thirty feet high. Beyond these dimensions, they may be safely replanted by an experienced practitioner; but it will not be desirable to subject them to the process, unless for some very important object. Where the branches have to be much cut in, they are rendered so ugly as to make the removal not worth attempting.

Notwithstanding the extreme desirableness of attending to the present appearance of plantations, and putting in a few plants at intervals to make an immediate show, and to banish the monotonous dulness unavoidable where only the youngest class is employed, the great aim of the planter should be for future effect; and where the bulk of the plants are healthy, and likely to do what is ultimately expected of them, their temporary mean or meagre aspect may be entirely disregarded. And although the peculiar developments which result from accident may sometimes yield combinations superior to any that the most cultivated art could produce, such is the adaptive and plastic power of Nature, yet, as such fortuitous groups can never be calculated upon, and may never arise, it is right to act as if all depended on the provisions of art, and place each plant where, from its known constitution, it is most likely to yield the wished-for effect, whether of outline, harmony, or contrast.

9. Having got the ground into a proper condition for planting, and remembering that the place should assume as good an

appearance as possible, both immediately and prospectively, the next consideration will be as to the time and manner of effecting this operation. The first of these will relate to the season and the weather alone. The other is much more comprehensive.

Whatever may be said of plants bearing to be removed at almost any season of the year, if a due regard be paid to their nature and wants, it is pretty certain that the fall of the year, when the leaves of deciduous plants are just shed, is the most appropriate period for transplanting them, where choice is allowed; while evergreens will probably be less injured by being planted about a month earlier. Into the reasons for this view it would be needless here to enter, as both theory and experience confirm it. But planting may be conducted throughout the whole of the winter, in open weather, and until the buds develop themselves pretty vigorously, or the beginning of April, or even May. For deciduous things, however, the earlier they can be got in, the less they will suffer in the following summer; and evergreens, if unplanted at the time of the occurrence of the first sharp winter frosts, should be kept back until about the earliest showers in April, otherwise the harsh and drying winds of March may severely punish and endanger them.

almost of more consequence in If the sun be shining brightly,

Calm, dull, moist weather is planting than the time of year. or there is any wind stirring, or the ground or the atmosphere be very dry, no kind of planting should be proceeded with. A plant out of the ground, and its roots exposed to drying influences, is in as unnatural and perilous a position as a fish that is out of water. Both may survive; but they have a great struggle to get over it, and their future health is for some time enfeebled. No weather is better for planting than the damp and foggy period so peculiar to November.

Not only, however, should planting be done on a cloudy and moist day, but it must be done rapidly, so as to keep the plants out of the ground as short a time as possible; and the roots should be preserved and spread out with the utmost care. Α' plant is mainly dependent on its roots for existence and support; and if these are much mutilated in taking it from the ground, or crushed and crippled and huddled up together at the time of its re-insertion, its chances of life and vigour will be proportionately weakened. All the roots have their correspondent

share of branches and foliage to supply; and when the former are much reduced in taking them up, or rendered inoperative by careless planting, the balance between the two is lost, and great sickliness or death results. The root fibres, therefore, should be strictly preserved, as far as possible, and laid out in their natural position when replanted, covering the whole with light and fine soil, and only treading the ground above them very slightly, when the earth has been entirely filled in.

In transplanting shrubs or trees of any unusual size, particularly evergreens, or even in moving smaller plants of tho latter from one part of a place to another, or from a position which admits of their being accompanied with balls of earth about the roots, these should always be kept entire. But the ends of the roots must not be cut off close to the ball, and should be carefully taken out with a fork, and the outsides of the ball be left loose, and guarded against every kind of compression. Where the roots become bruised or injured, they must be scrupulously pruned, and the jagged ends made smooth. The soil, too, should be shaken very lightly among them, and pressed under the ball by means of a blunt stick, that no cavities may be left there. If the weather be ordinarily moist, and the period be November, no watering of any kind will be necessary. But a thorough soaking with water will sometimes be useful in spring planting, and a subsequent mulching of grass-mowings, manure, or litter will generally be found of service in dry summers. Puddling, in the usual sense of the word, is a most mistaken practice, and ought never to be tolerated.

It is always safest to plant pretty thickly; for, where the climate or the prevailing winds are not so severe as to demand this precaution, the better kinds of plants invariably grow stronger and faster for having a little shelter, provided this do not rob them of light and air, or produce deformity, and is not continued too long. All the best plants, and the larger specimens, should, however, be put in first in a plantation; the intermediate parts being made up of commoner things, and such as can easily be taken or cut out the moment they begin to do harm.

If large plants be used to break the outline of a young plantation, they should not be left to stand alone and unsupported, but be at least partially and irregularly surrounded

with middle-sized plants, of different heights, to relieve their solitariness and the abruptness of their outline, and also, in part, to shelter them a little from the action of winds, and shade their roots somewhat from the drying influences of sun and air. Single specimens of tall trees, standing amidst a tribe of very much smaller ones, would look extremely naked, and not blend at all beautifully or softly with the rest. Nor would the hardness of their appearance be mitigated for several

years.

No plant will ever answer the expectations of the cultivator if its roots be buried too deeply at the time of planting, or afterwards. Such a practice would shut them out from air, and speedily tell upon the health, most probably killing the plant ultimately. The crown of the root ought not to be placed more than two or three inches below the surface of the ground. the soil settles, and the roots expand upwards, the plant will then, at length, have the collar or crown of its roots just level with the ground, and this is the most natural and healthy condition.

As

That plants in masses should not be placed in any kind of rows, but be dotted about as irregularly as possible, and at various distances from each other and from the front or back of the plantation, would seem quite a trite remark, were it not a rule that is seldom observed in small gardens. Nothing is more common than to see the plants put in either straight lines, or rows following the outline of the mass, at one measured distance apart, and with two plants of the same kind occupying precisely the same position in the bed, on opposite sides of the garden; thus making the arrangement of a group a system of pairs, rather than the most inartificial and broken thing imaginable. Even in some great public and national works the trees are planted in rows, although the outlines of the plantations in which they occur are decidedly irregular.

All this, however, unless where studied lines or avenues are contemplated, is far too artificial for English gardening, which is essentially free, and varied, and approximating to nature. And since no such things as lines of plants, or symmetrical correspondence of sorts in particular parts, or anything approaching to regularity of distance between the plants, are to be found in natural groups, neither should any of these things exist in

irregular garden masses. that several stems sometimes spring out from nearly the same spot, and by the growth of the branches get forced away from each other in various oblique directions, thus making a very picturesque and pleasing group. Something of the same kind might often be attempted with advantage in gardens or large plantations, with both shrubs and trees, and would get rid of the monotony of a succession of upright and shapely specimens, standing free from every species of encumbrance. For ordinary plants, a distance of from three to six feet, according to the size of the plants, will be most proper. Very small shrubs may even be placed as near as two feet; but three or four feet will more generally be right.

It is observable in nature, indeed,

Fig. 244 may, perhaps, give a hint or two regarding the arrangement thus described, the scale being 16 feet to an inch; the dotted line in the front showing a fragment of the outline of a plantation, the crosses (1) representing trees of various

heights and characters, the more lightly shaded spots (2) noting where deciduous flowering shrubs may be used, and the darkly shaded spots, such as 3, indicating where evergreen shrubs might be placed. After all, however, this illustration can only explain my intention very imperfectly, and much must be left to a practised eye, assisted by a correct knowledge of the plants to be used.

10. Although so much of the success of plants will turn upon the manner and circumstances in which they are planted; their selection, and the mode of obtaining them, will exert not a little influence on the subsequent well-being of the plantations. It