394 



those 



The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



of the spruce balsam fir, and Thuya, which often grow with it, and it was 

 only where clearings' had been made, or in wet places on the edge of the groves, that 

 they seemed able to thrive. Their growth is slow at f^rst, but wheti established 

 may be as much as two feet annually. . ^ , r 



Dr Bell gives the probable life of the white spruce m Canada as from 

 lOO to 140 years, that of the black spruce 150 to 175 years, and that of tamarack 

 17- or "GO years. Of the latter he says : ' About 1893 or 1894 the imported 

 sawfly^' came up from the direction of New York and got into the forests north of 

 the Ottawa river. In a year or two it reached James bay and killed the tamarack 

 throughout that district, which was only able to live three or four years after 

 it was first attacked by the larva. This destruction continued to spread to the centre 

 of Labrador, and now it has gone pretty well all over that great peninsula. But Mr. 

 J. C. Langelier {loc. at. p. 65), speaking of the same attack in the northern part of 

 the province of Quebec, says that a great portion of the young trees were spared, 

 and that the dead trees which remain standing are not attacked by rot, and would 

 supply excellent railway ties. 



Remarkable Trees 



In this country there are not many large trees of this species, though it was 

 introduced, according to Loudon,' by the Duke of Argyll in 1760 at Whitton, near 

 Hounslow. It has been entirely neglected by modern arboriculturists, and is seldom 

 or never procurable in English nurseries. The largest trees that I know of are at 

 Dropmore, where there is a well-grown tree 78 feet by 5 feet (Plate 110), and at 

 Arley Castle, where there are three trees of nearly the same size standing together, 

 of which the best measures 71 feet by 4 feet 8 inches. A fourth is nearly as large, 

 and differs in having larger cones. 



At Boynton, Yorkshire, there are two in a wet situation among other trees, 

 about 50 feet high and sixty years old, which were raised by Sir Charles Strickland 

 from seed produced by trees planted by his grandfather. These again have pro- 

 duced fertile seeds, from which seedlings are growing vigorously in a low frosty 

 situation at Colesborne and have never suffered from frost or bug, though one of 

 them in 1906 was attacked by Peziza. Sir Charles adds that on dry soil they have 

 grown very badly. 



At Beauport there are three rather stunted specimens of American larch, one of 

 which, however, is 5 feet 10 inches in girth, and has the bark very smooth in 

 comparison with the common larch. No specimen seems to have been sent to the 

 Conifer Conference, but one is mentioned as growing in the grounds of Dalkeith 

 Palace,* which we have identified with L. dahiirica. Several trees mentioned 

 by Loudon are either not now in existence or were not correctly named. 



(H. J. E.) 



1 Can. For. Ass. Annual Riporl, 1905, p. 59. 



- According to Sargent this is Nematus Erichsonii, Hartig, a European insect whicli was not much noticed in 

 .-Vmerica before 1880, and which has recently attacked the larch in England. Cf. supra, p. 364. 



' Op. cit. 2400, 2401. The original tree at Whitton was between 40 and 50 feet high in 1S37 : it has long since been 



3 

 cut down 



^ VeitcKs Man. Conifera, 390 note (1900) 



