TRANSACTIONS 



OP THE 



EOYAL SCOTTISH AEBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



I. Heredity and Forestry.^ 



By William Somerville, M.A., D.Sc, D.Oic., 

 Professor of Rural Economy, Oxford. 



Perhaps the title of this short address does not quite clearly- 

 express the scope of the few remarks that I have to make, so 

 I may at once explain that I do not intend to attempt to deal 

 in detail with the transmission of the characters of a tree to its 

 offspring, but merely to bring to your notice the results of some 

 interesting, and, I think, suggestive experiments that have been 

 conducted in Switzerland and Austria on behalf of the Pepart- 

 ments of Forestry of the respective countries, I have had the 

 opportunity of inspecting the Austrian work, which was initiated 

 and is still being conducted by Dr Cieslar, and I have discussed 

 in detail with Professor Engler the scheme and results of the 

 Swiss work. I therefore speak, to some extent, from personal 

 acquaintance with the results, and the fact that such acquaintance 

 made a considerable impression on me has induced me to bring 

 the matter before this Society, in the hope that it may stimulate 

 your interest, and perhaps induce some of you to make 

 experiments in the same direction. 



Both in Austria and in Switzerland the spruce and larch 

 (especially the former) have received most attention, in Austria 

 some work has also been done with the Scots pine, while 

 in Switzerland the silver fir and sycamore have also been 

 experimented with. The silver fir, however, has not been 

 found to give any information of value, while the results with 

 the Scots pine are scarcely complete enough to make it 

 necessary to discuss them on the present occasion. We will 

 therefore confine our attention to the spruce, larch, and 



^ Read before the Society at the General Meeting on nth July, 1907. 

 VOL. XXI. PART I. A 



