6G THE FAILURES OF THE LARCH. 



to spread their kind after the most rapacious feeding period of 

 their existence is past ; while in summer and autumn they 

 assume that white cottony or flaky appearance, by which their 

 presence is most distinctly and unmistakably marked. 



The larch bug infests trees of all ages, but in their nursery 

 growth it is comparatively rare on what are termed " one-year 

 seedlings ;" while on "two-year seedlings," and " one-year seedlings 

 one year transplanted," although seldom entirely absent, it is fre- 

 quently nearly so. But on older plants it is generally much more 

 evident, sometimes even to the extent of permanently withering 

 their foliage, commencing with that of the lower branches and 

 proceeding upwards. Hence nurseries that can produce " two-year 

 seedlings, two-year transplanted larches," free, or nearly so from 

 the bug, deserve favourable attention from intending planters. 

 William Boutcher, a famous nurseryman at Comely Bank Garden, 

 Edinburgh, who dedicated a treatise on forest trees to Henry, 

 Duke of Buccleuch, in 1775, therein recommended that larches 

 " intended for planting where beauty and shelter were immediately 

 required " should have three nursery transplantings previously, 

 and be " finally removed when ten to twelve feet high." Who 

 would think of practising this nursery treatment of larches now ] 

 Or if it were attempted, assuredly the blight-stricken plants would 

 neither be objects of beauty nor subjects for shelter. In planta- 

 tions, the larch bug is most prevalent in low, hollow, and flattish, 

 sheltered situations, more especially where timeous thinning has 

 been neglected ; in fact, just in such places as blistering or 

 surface-rot is most likely to be produced ; hence some have formed 

 the erroneous opinion that it is the cause of that injury. M. de 

 Candolle, in his treatise before referred to, leads us to infer that 

 the bug is unknown as an injurious infectant of the larch in its 

 native forests. Most probably it may there be associated with 

 some other insect which preys upon it, and thus keeps it within 

 harmless bounds. Many other plants have their health-destroy- 

 ing " mealy bugs," or white blights, such as the silver fir, beech, 

 apple, etc. ; but all these are essentially different from that of the 

 larch, which I have never found feeding upon any other plants. 

 This would favour the conclusion that it is not naturally indi- 

 genous to Britain, but that it has been introduced with the larch. 

 In fact, that the latter has been brought to us with its bane, with- 

 out the antidote, as were orange trees to the Cape of Good Hope, 

 and nutmeg plants to Pulo-Pinang, where, in consequence of the 



