NOTES AND QUERIES. 73 



The foliage of individual trees becomes quite red, and on shaking 

 the tree the needles fall in showers to the ground. On many 

 of the spruce needles the conspicuous black perithccia are 

 present. A part of this wood was felled for pit-wood, and I 

 found that this disease was alarmingly prevalent. It had been 

 the direct cause of the death of many flourishing trees. 



During February 1916, when one of the sections of the forest, 

 which contains a mi:ced crop of Scots pine and common spruce, 

 was being thinned, I observed that many of the spruce buds had 

 for some reason decayed. On a few of these spruce, which are 

 about seventy years of age, the buds were completely enveloped 

 by a thick black crust-like stroma, on which were numerous 

 black perithecia. These seemed to indicate an attack by a 

 Cucurbitaria similar to Cucurbitaria picece, the conifer bud 

 disease, described by Dr Borthwick in " Notes from the Royal 

 Botanical Garden, Edinburgh (1909) " as attacking the buds of 

 Picea pungens. The presence of this disease on the specimens 

 of common spruce, which I sent, has been confirmed by him. 



Damage to the spruce by insect attack is not found extensively, 

 but Tortrix tedella is certainly increasing. The majority of the 

 trees here have clusters of their needles hollowed out, and 

 bunched together by this small larva. The foliage of a badly 

 attacked tree becomes quite conspicuous by the light-coloured 

 patches of these clusters of needles. 



The Scolytidae are represented by Hylastes palliaius, 

 Trypodendron lineatum and Cryphalus abietis, which, however, 

 confine their attacks to dying trees. Chermes ahietis with its 

 disfiguring gall is very prevalent, and attacks both common 

 and Sitka spruce. Cones are seldom found without the 

 destructive borings of the larva of Tortrix strobiUlla. This 

 voracious larva tunnels through seed and scales, and reduces 

 the interior of the cone to powder. It is indeed the exception 

 to find a spruce cone which is not more or less destroyed by 

 the larva of this small moth. H. Watson. 



The Poplar. 



As the poplar is now very generally recommended as a 

 valuable tree to grow in suitable places on account of its rapid 

 growth and utility for many purposes, the following experience 

 may be to some purpose. 



