BRITISH FOREST TREES 139 



order to attain the same development as spruce that has 

 stood for two years, so that the age of the plants is more 

 often five than four years when they are finally put out. 

 When four-year-old transplants are to be used they should 

 be schooled in rows of 5" x 3", or 6" x 4" if to be used 

 at five years of age, and 7" x 5" if at six years of age, i.e. 

 if they are to remain two, three, and four years respectively 

 in the nursery beds. Where there are nurseries of oaks, 

 the silver fir transplants can easily be pricked out between 

 them with advantage to the former. Wherever any signs 

 of fungoid disease (^cidium elatinum) are visible on the 

 young shoots, the plants should at once be removed and 

 burned so as to prevent the infection of others. Nurseries 

 should be located in protected spots, and, in particular, 

 where danger from frost is not imminent ; windy situations, 

 coombs and valleys, or southern exposures should all be 

 avoided, so long as level or gently-sloping sites with mild, 

 fertile, fresh soil are available. 



4. LARCH (Pin us Larix, L. = LARIX EUROP^EA, D.C.) 



Distribution. The larch is indigenous to the Alps and the 

 Carpathians, the lower portion of the Silesian and Moravian 

 mountain ranges, and the southern edge of the woodland 

 area of Bohemia and Moravia ; outside of these limits its 

 growth is due to artificial measures. In the Bavarian 

 Alps it occurs at elevations of 3,000 to 6,000 feet, and at 

 1,100 to 2,700 feet on the lower hills of Silesia and 

 Moravia. It is essentially a tree of the mountains, and 

 of the Alpine districts in particular, where it ascends the 

 slopes even higher than the spruce. On the central 

 ranges of the Alps, especially .on the southern exposures, 

 and on the eastern branch of the Bavarian Alps, it attains 



