Page:Enquiry into plants (Volume 1).pdf/163

Rh Some say that no root goes down further than a foot and a half, and accordingly they blame those who plant deeper. However there are many instances in which it appears that what they say does not hold good; a plant which is naturally deep-rooting pushes much deeper if it finds either a deep mass of soil or a position which favours such growth or again the kind of ground which favours it. In fact, a man once said that when he was transplanting a fir which he had uprooted with levers, he found that it had a root more than eight cubits long, though the whole of it had not been removed, but it was broken off.

The slips for planting should be taken, if possible, with roots attached, or, failing that, from the lower rather than from the higher parts of the tree, except in the case of the vine; those that have roots should be set upright, while in the case of those which have none about a handsbreadth or rather more of the slip should be buried. Some say that part even of those which have roots should be buried, and that the position should be the same as that of the tree from which the slip was taken, facing north or east or south, as the case may be. With those plants with which it is possible, shoots from the boughs should also, they say, be planted, some being set on the trees themselves, as with olive pear apple and fig, but in other cases, as in that of the vine, they must be set separately, for that the vine cannot be grafted on itself.

If the slips cannot be taken with root or stock

129