A N A T U R A L I S T. 99 



From all I could observe, and all the inquiries I 

 could get answered, it appeared that this rapidly- 

 growing tree does not attain its full growth until it 

 is eighty or ninety years old, nor does its time of full 

 health and vigour much exceed an hundred. Before 

 this time it is liable to the attacks of insects, but 

 these are of a kind that bore the tender spring 

 shoots to deposit their eggs therein, and their larvae 

 appear to live principally on the sap, which is very 

 abundant, so that the tree is but slightly injured. 

 But after the pine has attained its acme, it is attacked 

 by an insect which deposits its egg in the body of 

 the tree, and the larva devours its way through the 

 solid substance of the timber; so that, after a pine 

 has been for one or two seasons subjected to these 

 depredators, it will be fairly riddled, and, if cut 

 down, is unfit for any other purpose than burning. 

 Indeed, if delayed too long, it is poorly fit for fire- 

 wood, so thoroughly do these insects destroy its sub- 

 stance. At the same time that one set of insects is 

 engaged in destroying the body, myriads of others 

 are at work under the bark, destroying the sap ves- 

 sels, and the foliage wears a more and more pale and 

 sickly appearance as the tree declines in vigour. If 

 not cut down, it eventually dies, becomes leafless, 

 stripped of its bark, and, as the decay advances, all 

 the smaller branches are broken off; and it stands 

 with its naked trunk and a few ragged limbs, as if 

 bidding defiance to the tempest which howls around 

 its head. Under favourable circumstances, a large 

 trunk will stand in this condition for nearly a cen- 



