DISEASES AND ACCIDENTS. 33 



A compensating power, such as the formation of healing tissues which 

 close over wounds, is present in the other tribes in a much higher 

 degree, and hence the trees and shrubs belonging to them may be cut 

 with far less risk of injury. This power exists to such an extra- 

 ordinary extent in the Yew, that it may lie deprived of its young 

 growth annually, for a long succession of years, without destroying its 

 vitality ; it is thus an invaluable hedge plant. In Part III., we have 

 given a selection of Coniferse suitable for the formation of hedges, 

 with hints for their treatment. 



Coniferous trees and shrubs are frequently injured and disfigured 

 by domestic and other animals, if not protected from their de- 

 predations. Horses will bite off the young shoots of most of 

 the kinds usually planted for the beautifying of the park and 

 landscape ; sheep and deer have been known to permanently dis- 

 figure young Araucarias, Deodars, and other kinds to which they 

 have obtained access. Nor is the Yew exempt from attack, 

 although the young branches and foliage can never be eaten by 

 cattle without dangerous, if not fatal results.* Hares and rabbits 

 will gnaw the bark of young Conifers in all seasons of the 

 year, but chiefly in winter, giving a preference to members of 

 the Cypress tribe when within their reach, probably on account of 

 the resinous secretions of these trees being less abundant than 

 in the Fir and Pine tribe, although the latter are by no means 

 free from their attacks. Squirrels destroy the green and immature 

 cones of Firs and Pines in great numbers, as well as the ripe 

 seeds which are an important item of their winter provisions ; they 

 also eat the buds of the same trees; they attack the bark of 

 the Scotch Fir and Larch, especially in young plantations, but 

 eating the inner bark only, frequently destroying the tree or 

 rendering it of no value ; and they have been known to strip off 

 the tough fibrous bark of the Bed "Wood and Wellingtonia for 

 material for their nests. Birds will peck off the buds of the 

 Fir and Pine when other resources are scarce, and they will also 

 use the fibres of the bark of the Eed Wood in the construction 

 of their nests.f 



* The necessity of guarding Yew trees that have not lost their lower branches, beyond 

 the reach ofcattle cannot be too strongly insisted upon, not so much for the sake of 

 the trees, as for' the safety of the animals. 



+ The mischief done by birds to Coniferous trees is really insignificant, and is more 

 than countobalanced by the good they do in destroying the iarv* of the msects that 

 prey upon them. 

 D 



