THEIR EFFECT ON MUSIC 



devours the wood and eats its way out as soon as it feels the 

 genial warmth of spring penetrating through the tree-bark. 

 Many other insects hibernate or lay their eggs in tree-trunks. 

 Some are caterpillars of moths, such as the well-known Goat 

 moth; others are beetles, such as one which burrows be- 

 tween the bark and the wood of apple trees. The mother 

 beetle lays a series of eggs on each side of her own track. 

 Each egg produces a grub which eats its way sideways away 

 from the track of the mother. The track made by these 

 grubs gets gradually wider, because the maggots themselves 

 grow larger and more fat with the distance that they have 

 got from their birthplace. We shall find other instances of 

 burrowing insects when we are dealing with rubber plants. 



This resin or turpentine is a very interesting and peculiar 

 substance, or rather series of substances. It is valuable 

 because tar, pitch, rosin, and colophony are obtained by 

 distilling it. 



When travelling through the coast forests of pine trees in 

 the Landes of Western France, one notices great bare gashes 

 on the stems leading round and down the trunk to a small 

 tin cup or spout. These trees are being tapped for resin, 

 from which rosin is manufactured. It would be difficult to 

 find any obvious connexion between music and the Giant 

 Sawfly. Yet the rosin used by Paganini and KubeHk has 

 probably been developed in Conifers to keep away sawflies 

 and other enemies. This very district, the Landes in France, 

 was once practically a desert, and famous as such in French 

 history. The soil was so barren that no villages or cultiva- 

 tion were found over the whole length of it. Now that 

 it is planted with trees which are able to yield firewood 

 and rosin, it is comparatively rich and prosperous. 



Storms are also very dangerous for tree-life. One can 



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