46 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY'. 



6. Notes on Raising Exotic Conifers from Seed. 



By T- Fergtson, Forester, Gregynog, Montgomeryshire. 



I have been employed for a ntimber of years on estates in 

 Wales, where there are good collections of exotic coniferous 

 trees, many of which have reached timber size, and are 

 periodically bearing crops of good seed ; and perhaps it may be 

 of some interest to foresters and others to hear of the 

 Dropagation, in a small way, of some of these species, and of 

 the methods I have adopted for the collection, extraction and 

 storing of the seed, and for the raising of young plants from it. 



I give here a list of the species referred to, with the 

 approximate percentages of germination, and the time taken to 

 germinate after sowing on the ist May : — 



The cones were collected during dry weather, from trees 

 ranging in height from 50 to loo feet, and were mostly got by 

 climbing, except those of A. imbricata and C Ni/tkaeiisis, which 

 were switched off and gathered from the ground. It is safer 

 to collect cones a few days before they are fully ripe than to 

 leave them until they have become over ripe ; and especially so 

 in the case of some of the species, such as A. nobilis and A. 

 grandis, as a high wind may shed them all in a single night. I 

 find a pair of field-glasses helpful to show the state of the 

 cones on high trees. 



The cones were placed in trays put into a frame on shelves close 

 to the glass, when a few warm sunny days opened them. The 



