the fine tops of trees, when transplanted, entirely superseded. We shall now attempt to weigh some of these assertions and conclusions of Sir Henry, and to pursue these inquiries a little farther. It is known to every forester, that trees growing in close order, and drawn up tall, will not continue healthy on being thinned out to very open arrangement, but will often fall victims to the change of circumstances, even though they withstand the gale. Who, then, would be guilty of the folly of expecting {266} they would bear exposure and the injuries of transplanting at the same time? Sir Henry Steuart mentions some particular facts as causes of this unsuitableness. Perhaps it would have been as well to ascribe it to general inaptitude and delicacy, as there are several other circumstances not easily understood, such as vital stamina, habitude or acclimatizing, and texture and configuration of vessels, which must have influence. We should also think simple evaporation of the fluids of the transplanted tree a much greater cause of its failure than the cold of this or of any other evaporation acting to numb the sap-vessels in the stem and branches. The absorbing mouths of the rootlets, excepting in the case of very large balls, are generally destroyed by the operation of removal; and the development of the leaves to a certain extent taking place before any new process of striking of the roots, owing to the atmosphere and branches getting sooner heated in spring than the ground and roots, the half-developed leaves shrivel up in the arid spring air, from the evaporation of the juices and deficiency of root-suction; and when the air gets moist, showers fall, and the earth becomes warm enough for the _striking_ of the roots, the vital principle is too far spent, or the material substance too much changed, for the {267} recommencement of organic action. We have found that trees which had remained months out of ground, and were planted in March, succeed better than trees removed immediately from their old site to their new, both being planted with equal care in the same ground at the same time. The latter acquired half developed leaves early in April, which withered from deficiency of root-suction; and it was only with attention that we succeeded in causing them to bud forth anew and acquire leaves about midsummer; in several, we stimulated the root-suction by application of heated water, covering up with litter to retain the heat. The former were several weeks more backward in leafing, and when the buds burst, the ground had become warm enough for _root-striking_, and the vegetation proceeded without check. Sir Henry will say, that the check sustained by those which leafed early, was owing to the numbing effect of the cold spring wind, and of the cold of evaporation on the sap-vessels of the stem; but we had caused several of them to be wrapped round the stem with soft straw-ropes, and this did not prevent the shrivelling of the leaves, although it