THE FAILURES OF THE LARCH. 69 



unhealthiness, and this is specially evident in the case of the 

 larch. Hence the importance of planting out only clean plants, 

 more particularly in places so distant from previously existing 

 plantations that the insect plague is not likely to be transmitted 

 from them. And as nursery plants are seldom, if ever, entirely 

 clean, it is highly desirable that a steep or other curative be found 

 that will destroy any insects or their eggs which may be on plants 

 intended for transplantation, without affecting the health of the 

 latter. No better subject than this can be chosen by this Society 

 for which to offer a high premium ; and next to it would rank 

 one for a detailed account of the transformations, propagation, 

 and habits of the larch bug, founded on minute, careful, and fre- 

 quently-repeated observation, extending over two or three years ; 

 for as yet little or almost nothing is definitely known of the 

 natural history of this and other most troublesome members of 

 the Coccidce and the 'Aphidce. 



In conclusion, I have only to add that, while admitting that as 

 in the case of the Scotch fir, a diminution in the size of larch trees 

 may to some extent be induced by long continued collecting of 

 the cones from the easiest got at plants, or dwarf sub-varieties ; 

 I have no belief in the often-advanced theories that degeneracy or 

 weakness of constitution has been produced in the larch by rearing 

 the young plants from seeds that have not been produced in its 

 native climate ; by collecting seeds from so-called diseased, but 

 which are actually injured trees ; by over-heating the seeds, in order 

 to their more easy extraction from the cones, or other like un- 

 tenable supposed causes ; for if the seed is sufficiently matured 

 and sound to produce healthy young plants, no bad results can 

 follow from the trees on which it grew having been injured by 

 drought, saturation, frost, insects, and other causes, or from the 

 seeds being over-heated in the kiln-drying of the cones. 



