REPORT ON LARCH FORESTS. 421 



grown larch seed, formed at least part of the third or fourth genera- 

 tion of the tree in Scotland. There can be no doubt that the 

 reason why acclimatised plants of the larch are so seldom sought 

 after is, that the great difference is not known ; it is seldom 

 their advantages are brought before the planter's notice ; but 

 once having seen the great contrast in the hardiness of the 

 one compared to that of the other, it forms a subject not to 

 be forgotten. Then, no more would a judicious planter allow the 

 plants from foreign seed to be inserted in his plantation, in an 

 elevated or exposed situation, than he would any other species 

 of half-hardy trees* He then sees that in most cases, acclima- 

 tion is the grand basis of health in the tree, forming the 

 difference between success and failure, life and death. Most 

 people acquainted with the commonest operations in gardening 

 have experienced the great difference in cauliflower plants sub- 

 jected to the influence of cold during winter compared to those 

 protected in heat. Even our hardiest weeds, that spring up 

 under glass in a high temperature, suffer greatly when exposed 

 to the severity of weather in the open ground ; this influence, 

 which is so perceptible in the succulent plants of a season, is, 

 with respect to trees, assuredly transmissible by seed to their 

 future generations ; and it is likely to suppose that that hardi- 

 ness, or tenderness, will be the more or less fixed according to 

 the length of time or the number of former generations the tree 

 had been subjected to such temperature or climatic influence. 



I had lately a consultation with the owner of one of the largest 

 and longest established nurseries in the west of Scotland respecting 

 the tender nature of the larch of late years, both in the nursery 

 and in the forest. He said, so far as the nursery was concerned, 

 he was well aware of the fact, from dear-bought experience, that 

 for several years his crops grown from imported seed had been 

 so severely damaged by frost, that on an average of years only 

 about a fourth part of the seedlings had escaped with their tops ; 

 that in future he was fully resolved to sow none but Scotch-grown 

 seed, which produced plants far hardier than that from foreign 

 seed ; and in the event of a failure of Scotch seed, he would be 

 obliged to purchase young seedling plants raised in a better 

 climate than that which his ground possessed.t Great as are the 



* I observe from a paper presented to the Botanical Congress this year, on the 

 raising peaches, nectarines, and other fruits from seed, by Mr Thomas Rivers, 

 Sawbridgeworth, he states, that by repeated generations from seed, they are 

 produced of a more hardy nature than the old sort, and that he has more than 

 one proof of the fact. He adds — " I may be accused of enthusiasm, but I look ta 

 the future for new races of fruits with qualities far superior to the old, and the 

 trees of so hardy a nature as to resist some of the unfavourable tendencies of our 

 climate. I have formed this opinion on the solid basis of observation during a 

 lifetime devoted to the cultivation of fruit trees in all stages of their growth." 



t The difference also between Scotch fir plants (Pinus sylve&tris), from con- 

 tinental seed and seeds grown in Scotland, is also very marked. A nurseryman 



