35 6 The Trees of Great Britain and Iceland 



I was informed by M. Mougin, Conservator of Forests at Chambery, that in 

 the Modane district the cones are collected at the end of November by men who 

 climb the trees, with a long hooked pole, and gather the cones by hand into a bag 

 which they carry. The cones are received twice a week at the drying-place, where 

 they are spread out in an airy shed, and turned over every day to dry them and 

 prevent them from heating. When the fine weather returns, they are spread out 

 on a cemented floor, exposed to the sun, which opens them, after which the seed is 

 collected and cleaned, and put in boxes, which are shaken frequently to prevent the 

 attacks of insects. Sometimes seed can be collected on the snow under the trees 

 in January by shaking the trees. But in no case is a stove used to extract them, 

 as seems to be the usual practice in Scotland.^ 



From Prof A. Fron,^ of the Forestry School of Les Barres, I have received 

 valuable information on the germination of larch seed, which I summarise as follows : 

 He considers that the process usually adopted of grinding the cones in a mill 

 is very inferior to either of those which I have described as in vogue in the 

 Alps, because the seeds of good quality which come from the central portion of the 

 cone are mixed with those from its upper and lower ends, which are usually empty 

 or imperfect. In 1905 he made experiments on the germination of larch seed 

 obtained at Modane, which had been extracted by the heat of the sun, and obtained 

 the following result : 



Purity ...... 98 per cent. 



Germinative power . . . . 61.3 



Cultural value ..... 60.1 



whilst the average of the seeds obtained from seedsmen only gave the following 

 result : 



Purity . . . . . 80 to 85 per cent, 



Germinative power . . . . 45 ,. 50 ,, 



Cultural value ... 40 ,, 



I may say that the seeds I have gathered from my own trees late in March, and 

 extracted by exposing them to the sun under glass in a garden frame, have germin- 

 ated quicker and grown better than any which I have purchased. 



An ideal way of raising larch would be as follows : To gather cones in the 

 month of March or April from the best and healthiest mature trees in one's own 

 district, or, failing this, from trees known to be healthy on a similar soil ; or to 

 purchase seed of known origin direct from a reliable firm abroad, among whom I can 

 highly recommend Messrs. Vilmorin of Paris and Messrs. Jenewein of Innsbruck. 



The seed-bed should be in an elevated position, where spring frosts are not 

 likely to be severe, and sheltered as much as possible from the morning sun by trees 



' Prof. Fisher tells me that in Germany larch seed is extracted from the cones by a toothed axis rotating in a drum, also 

 lined with shorter teeth, and driven by water or steam power. 



' For further particulars concerning the purity and germinative power of larch seed from dift'erenl sources, cf. Fron, 

 Analyse et ContrSle des Sentences Forestiires, 92 (1906). 



