138 NATUBAIi HISTORY OF SCOTCH FIR. 



" In some localities marauders have a practice of cutting deeply 

 notches in the trunk of the tree to remove some portions richly 

 charged with resin which they recognise by a deep yellow colour, and 

 by a strong odour which is exhaled. These portions cut into small 

 pieces are very inflamable, and are sold in place of matches and fire 

 quickeners. It is scarcely necessary to say that this practice is most 

 prejudicial to the trees." 



The authorities of the Forest School of Nancy give the following 

 instructions relative to the collection and preservation of the seeds ; 

 " The collecting of the cones should take place from the month of 

 November till that of March. When it is requisite to make great 

 provision for sowings this should be done as soon as they have 

 attained maturity ; in other cases it is preferable not to collect them 

 until after the cold, as the nearer this action approaches to the period 

 of natural dispersion of the seed, with the greater facility is this 

 extracted. 



*' The extraction of the seed may be efi'ected either by solar or arti- 

 ficial heat, but the former is preferable, -as thus are obtained seeds of 

 a superior quality ; but the latter is more generally employed, as it is 

 more expeditious and better admits of making collections in great 

 quantities." 



Hartig, the father of Modern Forest Science in Germany, has 

 given a description of the arrangements adopted in such cases, of 

 which the following is a translation : 



" There is used an apartment in the lower storey of a stone 

 building. There are placed in such an apartment one or more stoves, 

 fitted up with grates that they may be heated by the combustion of 

 emptied cones ; and there proceed from these stoves a circuit of 

 pipes conveying heated air as in green-house, hot-house, or stove, 

 that in every part the room may be heated to a sufficient temperature. 

 In this hot-house there are constructed against the walls and in the 

 centre scaffolding on which may be placed trays of wooden lattice 

 work, or of wire work from 1 metre 66 centimetres, to 2 metres in 

 length by 82 centimetres in breadth, in stages of about 16 centi- 

 metres between. Under the lowest range of trays are placed drawers 

 to receive the seed. 



" They then charge the trays with cones, and heat the stove to as 

 high a temperature as a man conveniently can stand, (20° to 25° R.) 

 ^0* to 90° Fahr." ; and Cotta, who followed Hartig, Kays that the 



