THE ENEMIES OF ENGLISH WOODLANDS 303 



The idea that larch mixed freely with other species is 

 less subject to disease, on account of the greater isolation of 

 individual trees, seems to us difficult to prove. The absence 

 or presence of a few millions of fungus spores, more or less, 

 cannot be of great importance, or affect the general spread 

 of the disease one way or the other, unless the proportion 

 of spores with germinating powers is much smaller than is 

 generally supposed. 



It would be absurd to pretend that the arguments 

 advanced above cover all the ground over which the larch 

 disease ranges. But our contention is, and long has been, 

 that the disease is as much the effect as the cause of the 

 bad health and the unthrifty condition of hundreds of 

 plantations throughout the country, and that the temporary 

 debility which is induced by the conditions under which 

 planting is, and in many cases must be, conducted, are 

 largely responsible for a great deal of it. 



The practically permanent nature of the blister when 

 once established renders the result of this temporary debility 

 a more serious matter than it otherwise would be. If the 

 return to normal health and growth were accompanied by 

 the disappearance of the disease, little harm would be done. 

 But the existence of a blister once established is perpetuated 

 indefinitely, and in most cases only ceases with that of its 

 host, and the occurrence of a blister on the stem of a young 

 tree is a much more serious business than it would be on 

 a branch or older stem. Cases do occur, although they are 

 not too common, of the disappearance of the blisters when 

 the trees recover their health and vigour. We know of a 

 plantation about twenty years of age on the Greensand, more 

 or less mixed with beech, where numbers of old blisters are 

 gradually becoming " occluded " by the surrounding wood. 

 That they were genuine blisters is proved by the remains of 

 the Peziza cups still observable, and the only possible theory 

 respecting their disappearance must be found in the improved 

 health of their hosts. 



Another point of importance in the discussion of this 

 question is the fact that the fungus is found as a saprophyte 

 on the healthiest trees and in the highest crowns. Pick up 

 dead twigs or branches under the largest, finest, and most 



