NOTES AND QUERIES. 1 13 



by its shorter leaves, but more particularly by its cones, which 

 are very small, the scales being long in proportion to their 

 breadth, and abruptly contracted towards the base, while the 

 ovate acute bracts of the cone are about one-third as long as 

 the scales. It is to be known as the Alaska larch. — Indian 

 Forester^ from The Field. 



Retirement of Mr Grant Thomson. 



The retirement of Mr Grant Thomson from active life is a 

 notable incident in the records of Scottish forestry, to which his 

 contribution has been tens of thousands of acres of businesslike 

 plantations. Few men with so much responsibility, facing so 

 many difficulties, leave the trace of so few mistakes. Bold in 

 the conception of his vast undertaking, he was careful in its 

 execution, so that probably no British wood manager has 

 neglected or wasted less of the capital at his disposal ; for in 

 spite of his efforts being hampered by the exigencies of game, 

 grazing, climate, and economy, he has shown as no one else has 

 shown how the energy, method, and resource of a dominant 

 personality could transform heather into timber, and utilise the 

 Highland soil to the best private and public advantage. His 

 mental and physical force, and the experience gained during his 

 long working day, enabled him to accomplish his task with 

 comparatively little of that outside help which we are now 

 accustomed to look for and to rely upon. In his time there was no 

 available training in wood management and no useful object- 

 lessons in British silviculture. Mr Grant Thomson had, it is 

 true, the advantage of exchanging views with experts of the 

 Indian Forest Service, who led their pupils to Speyside and 

 Nancy before relegating them to the German Forstmeister. 

 Of such opportunities he took full advantage, and- was able to 

 introduce his visitors to his system of natural regeneration on 

 a scale larger than had hitherto been attempted. This was 

 the crowning achievement of his career, for this system of 

 natural regeneration was his chief legacy to the managers of 

 existing woodlands in Scotland, together with the example of 

 large areas reclaimed by afforestation. 



But it is not solely as a silviculturist that Mr Grant Thomson is 

 known to troops of friends. He is as much at home in London 

 as on the Grampians, and would have been as remarkable 

 VOL. XXIV. part I, H 



