FEBRUARY 49 



surpassed all the others in height and average girth, but 

 parts of the ground are thickly clothed with its seedlings. 

 The other three species seed freely, but I could not find 

 a single young plant of any of them. The hares and 

 rabbits will not suffer them to grow. 



The Corsican pine is one of the noblest of European 

 conifers, and economically a more valuable tree than any 

 of them, except the larch. One hardly dare plant the 

 larch now, so fatal are the ravages of its special disease. 1 

 The Corsicans are most robust and healthy in the British 

 climate, but they are not favourites with our foresters, 

 such a large percentage die after plan ting- out. They are 

 deficient in fibrous roots, but this disadvantage may be 

 overcome by deferring planting to the latest possible 

 period in spring. If Corsicans are planted in April when 

 growth has started, or even during the first fortnight of 

 May, they take on as kindly as Scots pines and grow away 

 as if nothing had happened. As to the quality of the 

 timber, it is said to be almost equal to larch, even in a 

 young state. It is recorded how Napoleon, himself a 

 Corsican, insisted upon building battleships of timber 

 from his native forests, against the remonstrance of his 

 admiralty. They floated all right and sailed very well ; it 

 was only when they met British oak-built seventy-fours 

 that the trouble began ; for Corsican pine, like all kinds 

 of deal, splinters badly under cannon fire, dealing death 

 and wounds among gunners and seamen. 



As the planting season is upon us, let me bring another 



1 This year (1906) I have found three Corsican pines, from fifteen to 

 twenty-two years planted, affected by larch disease (Peziza Wilkommii), 

 but in two instances the trees had apparently suffered no damage from 

 it. The third specimen, which I sent to Kew for identification, was 

 a suppressed tree. 



D 



