&& On the amative Forests of Aberdeenshire. 



getting into maturity, three of the gooseberry bushes near the site 

 of the old tree suddenly died, and afterwards, for a continuance of 

 seven years, some additional bushes, both of the gooseberries and 

 the red and black currants, yearly died around the same place. 

 The young apple-tree also perished, and several young bushes, 

 planted to fill the vacant spaces, suffered the fate of the older ones ; 

 so that at this moment 1828, there now exists, in the middle of 

 the plantation of bushes, a vacant circle of about 35 feet diameter, 

 having for its centre the site of the old tree. On digging some 

 trenches in this space for celery, three years ago, some roots of the 

 old tree were incidentally dug out, and were found covered and 

 penetrated by a tough viscid species of fungus, which I have not 

 sufficient knowledge to describe, and on examining the root of one 

 of the red currants, then recently dead, it was found deeply infect- 

 ed with a similar fungus. 



It might be objected to the first example now adduced, that the 

 failure of the trees on the site of the old plantation, was owing to 

 the exhaustion of the ground by the former wood, and not to any 

 injurious effect of the decaying old roots. But no such objection 

 can lie against the second ; for there the ground had been thorough- 

 ly enriched by a large application of manure, which was indeed 

 frequently renewed after planting the bushes ; so that it must be 

 admitted as incontestible evidence of the generation of positive dis- 

 ease in live trees by the contiguity of dead and decaying roots. 



It is probable that the larch will now, to a great extent, super- 

 sede the Scotch fir in the plantations of our granite country, which 

 it well deserves to do, owing to its more vigorous growth, its thriv- 

 ing in a more elevated situation, and the early perfection and ex- 

 cellence of its wood.* Those of them earliest planted here, are 

 generally found skirting gentlemen's lawns, and dispersed through 

 small belts, where they have had often room enough. In some few 

 places where they are more confined, their comparative vigorous 

 condition shows that they bear crowding much better than the 

 Scotch fir ; and being deciduous, they are much better calculated 

 to elude the force of the winter storms, than trees covered with a 

 dense foliage. They are accordingly rarely uprooted by the wind, 

 and would probably, although planted very thick, not suffer ulti- 

 mately from that circumstance in the same degree as our Scotch fir 

 plantations. Yet the habit of thick planting is so extensively and 



• I stated an instance of the early perfection of its wood in former notes I 

 sent you. The wood of the Scotch fir of the same age, 40 years, would not have 

 lasted more than 5 or 6 years, instead of 16, during which it has continued ex- 

 posed to the weather almost without decay. I will here state an example of the 

 superior vigour of its growth, exhibited in a plantation of mingled larches and 

 Scotch firs, very near this place, 18 years old. I have measured some of both 

 kinds, growing under equal circumstances, and exhibiting a fair average of their 

 relative vigour through the whole plantation. The larches are 25 feet high, and 

 the Scotch firs 20 feet ; and at one foot above the ground, the former are 30 

 inches in circumference, the latter 21 inches. 



