60 The greater summer-leafing trees 



across Europe, Asia, and America. Avoiding the rich 

 soils of the plain and the shelter of the lowlands, the 

 Larch seeks regions that are high and cold, and is 

 happiest upon the wind-swept slopes of the mountain- 

 side. 



The Larch has a great many diseases, but the one 

 that affects us most is that known as ' Canker ', and the 

 work of a fungus which has the power not only of living 

 on the outside but also of making its way into the heart 

 of the tree. The remedy is difficult, not to say im- 

 possible, to apply in any thorough way. Not unlikely 

 our mild open winters, which are so different from the 

 arctic winters in which the Larch usually lives, have 

 something to do with it, and also, owing to the great 

 popularity of the tree, the fashion in which it has been 

 planted in masses, very often absurdly close. We have 

 seen it planted 18 inches apart, and so weak that the 

 wind blew the trees over. If the disease occurs in such 

 conditions it spreads rapidly. The remedy is to group 

 the Larch more in open and airy places, and the higher 

 and more exposed the better. If used in our moist 

 valleys it is better to go in for mixed planting instead 

 of massing, although here and there one must mass. 



There are various and rare kinds of Larch, but for 

 woodland work it is best to keep to the European and 

 Japanese kinds. 



The White Willow. This is not popular with planters, 

 but if one wanted to make a picture of an ugly marsh or 

 bare stream bank where is the tree that would do it so 

 well in a few years ? Happily it plants itself over the 

 valleys and by the rivers of nearly all European coun- 

 tries; in the valleys of France and in our country, 

 especially towards the east, it is abundant. Whether 



