1 1 8 TREE-PLANTING. 



It is also subject to a disease which is called 

 " pumping," in which case the trunk becomes hollow, 

 and is believed to commence at the root and rise 

 upwards, which has been found to prevail most upon 

 land which has previously yielded timber, the fungus 

 which accompanies decaying roots being injurious to 

 most sorts of forest trees. 



Larch is frequently planted after Scotch fir, and in 

 those cases the timber is often found to be unsound, 

 but it performs a very useful office in creating herbage, 

 produced eventually, from the richness of its foliage, 

 which it sheds annually, the deposit in a healthy 

 plantation being very great, the leaves forming a sort 

 of rich top-dressing, which is consumed where they 

 drop, and is the means of causing some of the finer 

 natural grasses to spring up, which forms choice food 

 for dairy cattle that can be turned into it, when it has 

 had sufficient time to be produced. 



Spruce Firs (Abies}. This genus consists of several 

 species of evergreen firs, natives of Europe, Asia, and 

 America, and belongs to Moncecia monadelpJda in the 

 Linnsean system, and to Couifercs in the Natural order 

 of plants. 



The Norway Spruce (A. excelsd). This is the tree 

 most commonly cultivated throughout Britain of this 

 genus, which is well known for its great beauty of 

 form and uniform growth of a conical shape. It is 

 considered to be the loftiest tree indigenous to Europe, 

 in its native countries having been known to reach an 

 altitude of 180 feet. It abounds in Norway, Sweden, 

 Denmark, Lapland, and the north of Germany, and is 

 thought to have been introduced into Britain about 

 the middle of the sixteenth century. In a congenial 



