408 REPORT ON LARCH FORESTS. 



the surface, being better carbonised ; and, second, the admission 

 of air and light to that part termed the neck of the plant, thereby 

 exciting it to grow in a way superior to others not so exposed. 

 Deep planting upon a slope is not so injurious to the trees as it is 

 upon fiat ground. 



The practice of mixing pines and spruce with larch confines it 

 too much, thereby causing that insect called the Coccus laricis 

 to infest it. Too much confinement in low places (especially 

 damp ones), soils too rich with manure, and exhausted muiry 

 soils, are all producing causes of Coccus laricis. Whatever the 

 amount of damage to the trees is, as occasioned by this insect, is 

 difficult to say; but one thing is certain, that noble specimens of 

 trees now exist and plantations flourish which were at one time 

 much infested with Coccus laricis. The writer's opinion is, that 

 the presence of Coccus laricis shows that something is wrong with 

 the tree, but as soon as it becomes vigorous in growth the insect 

 leaves it, being not the cause, but an attendant or consequent of 

 disease. Newly planted trees (though healthy), and others of 

 sluggish growth, are both subjects of the insect in question. 



In the larch, as in other plants raised from seed, there are con- 

 siderable variety, and in this variety, it is supposed, are concealed 

 the plants liable to be diseased. The red flowering larch is by 

 some considered hardy enough to endure the climate and other un- 

 favourable circumstances, it being a native of the Alps in Switzer- 

 land; while others assert, quite the reverse, that the white variety 

 is best adapted for planting in this country, it being a native of 

 Tyrol. This difference of opinion arises from the fact that, under 

 certain conditions, both varieties fail or succeed. The success is 

 not, however, due to the variety, but to the soil in which' it is 

 favourably planted. The writer is prepared to point out trees of 

 every shade of colour of flower in a sound and healthy condition, 

 and also to show every variety in various stages of disease. 



There appears some difference between trees whose seed was 

 direct from Tyrol, and that of home-grown larch, in their first 

 and early stages of growth. The difference in the nursery ground, 

 especially in the seed-bed, is at times quite obvious, and in other 

 cases quite undistinguishable. 



When home-grown seed is plump and well-grown, and that 

 from Tyrol of inferior quality, as sometimes happens, and the 

 two sorts are sown side by side, by way of experiment, and in 

 order to compare the two sorts together, the difference is so small 

 as scarcely to be distinguishable; while in other cases, where similar 

 trials have been made, and the seed happens to be of opposite 

 extremes of quality, in such cases the difference is so obvious as 

 to produce an honest impression that the species of larch are 

 different. Good sound Tyrolese seed produces plants several 

 days earlier than Swiss or Scotch seed. 



