262 CONIFEROUS TREES 



mately to a moth. It is a most difficult matter 

 with this insect — as, indeed, with all others that 

 are fairly abundant — to suggest a remedy, and we 

 have looked over and examined larch plantations 

 that are differently situated in many respects to 

 find out under what conditions the attacks are 

 most persistent, but with little or no success — 

 healthy and unhealthy, native or Tyrolese, suffer- 

 ing alike when grown as a pure crop. 



Where the larches are intermixed with hard- 

 wooded trees — sycamore, oak, and beech — the 

 attacks are certainly less frequent, and this we 

 have now noticed in a number of cases. Trees 

 growing at high altitudes do not seem to suffer 

 less than those at only a few feet above sea-level, 

 and to this point particular attention has been 

 paid. Whether the wounds caused by this insect 

 will serve as a nidus for the spores of Peziza Will- 

 kommii has yet to be determined, but special 

 importance should be attached to all larch- 

 feeding insects, and their depredations minimised 

 to as great an extent as possible. 



Pine-tree coccus. — The Weymouth pine [Finns 

 Strobus) suffers severely from a species of coccus 

 which of late years has spread with terrible rapidity 

 in almost every part of the country. In certain 

 instances the trees have been so badly infested 

 that whole woods have been cut down and burnt. 



Spraying with a fairly strong solution of soft 

 soap and paraffin at intervals during the winter 

 and spring months has been attended with good 

 results, but such treatment can hardly be ex- 

 tended to a whole plantation of the tree. The 

 attacks are worst where the pine is growing in 



