I 82 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY, 



probable from the fact that the Tyrolese appear in some places, 

 at least in the nursery, more liable to be frosted than the home- 

 grown plants. Mr Boyd, Mr D. Robertson, and Mr W. Mackenzie 

 agree on this point, but Mr G. Brown finds little difference 

 between the Tyrolese and home plants in this respect. He 

 notes that the Tyrolese retain their needles longer; "still they 

 may harden off in time to withstand any frost " which the home- 

 grown seedlings can resist. 



It is clear that all these observers do find a difference in 

 behaviour as regards the effects of our climate between Tyrolese 

 and Scottish seedlings. 



The long and laborious researches carried out by Engler (2) and 

 Cieslar, in Switzerland and Austria, seem to show that the 

 seed does inherit the habits of its parents. Seed from plants 

 grown at very high altitudes produces seedlings which at first 

 begin to bud much later in the season, and also shed iheir leaves 

 much earlier than other seedlings from lowland plants grown 

 beside them. 



These experiments really seem to be decisive on this point, if 

 any experiments may ever be so described. It is a very un- 

 fortunate thing for Scottish forestry that the paper in which they 

 are recorded has never been translated into English. 



In the point (liability to frost) mentioned by these observers, 

 the Tyrolese seedlings appear to follow the habits of their 

 continental ancestors. They are more liable to frost, and differ in 

 this respect from the Scottish seed. Schott (3) mentions, in 

 reference to the Scots pine, that the seed from northerly localities 

 (by which he means Northern Scandinavian situations) is inferior. 

 The cones are lighter and smaller, and the seed is apparently not 

 so well ripened and not so heavy as that which is grown in more 

 southerly situations. It is probable enough that in the natural 

 home of the larch, the seed has far more chance of ripening and 

 maturing than in most Scottish summers. 



The natural home of Larix europcea is (according to Kirchner, 

 Loew and Schroter) (4) a belt of country running from a point in 

 the Maritime Alps of Dauphine (44° 30' N. lat.) in a north- 

 easterly direction through Switzerland as far north as Gabris in 

 Canton Appenzell, and eastward as far as Kronstadt in the 

 Siebengebirgen. Throughout this region it seeds freely, and is 

 able to reproduce itself by natural seedlings. Although it has 

 been planted and thrives vigorously, it has never become 



