2 66 THE LAECH. 



growth extends a farther or shorter way according to 

 the favourable or unfavourable influences met with ; 

 and on the other hand, if the seed is diseased, weak, 

 and feeble, the plants produced therefrom will likewise 

 partake of these unfavourable conditions, and either 

 soon languish and die, or recover and attain a per- 

 fectly healthy state, and remain so. All plants grown 

 from imperfectly ripened or diseased seed are more 

 liable to attacks of insects, blight, &c., than those 

 grown from seed sound and good : for example, plants 

 grown from seed-corn imperfectly filled and ripened are 

 much more liable to be attacked by grub- worm than 

 those from seed plump and sound ; and it may safely 

 be inferred that corresponding results take place with 

 diseased tree-seed, to which larch forms no exception ; 

 and any forester who knows his profession is at no 

 loss, in selecting his plants, in determining what has 

 been their antecedents in respect of seed, and con- 

 sequently what their future prospects. While the 

 nurseryman may with perfect safety be left to select 

 the seed and grow the seedlings, it becomes the duty 

 of every forester to exercise great circumspection in 

 choosing and selecting the plants, by seeing that 

 they are strong, perfectly healthy, have not been grown 

 in an overcrowded state, that they are well rooted, 

 that the wood is properly ripened, especially the top 

 shoots and buds, and that they are of the proper age 

 and size to suit the herbage, soil, and situation where 

 they are destined permanently to grow. 



Second. No possible, or rather practicable, amount 



