36 A MANUAL OP THE CONIFER*. 



in the first instance, feed on their prey, and then breed in the cavities 

 which their predacious attacks have made." 



" The season when insects are most injurious to Coniferous woods 

 is generally from the beginning of April to the end of June, and 

 again from about the beginning of August till the middle or end of 

 September, in favourable and mild weather, or ordinary seasons. Cold 

 or wet weather #may affect their operations, but, as a rule, these are 

 the times of the year during which the greatest havoc is committed. 

 Hot and dry summer weather, especially if succeeded by a cold, dry, 

 frosty winter, favours the dissemination and increase of forest feeding 

 insects. The warmth of summer fosters their breeding, because by its 

 genial influence their period of transformation from the larvae state 

 is shortened, and abundance of time is afforded for several broods to 

 mature in succession, and when the following winter is dry, a super- 

 abundant number of insects will be found in the coming spring; while 

 on the other hand, should the summer season prove wet and deficient 

 in sunshine, and the following autumn and winter be damp, intensely 

 cold or snowy, the numbers of insects whose increase had been 

 previously checked by the adverse summer will be materially lessened 

 in the following spring, and the destruction to the woods for the 

 time will be proportionately lessened." 



Our space does not permit us- to pursue this interesting subject 

 further ; we must therefore refer those of our readers desirous of further 

 information, to the excellent paper from which the foregoing extracts 

 are taken. 



Accidents from meteorological phenomena, as winds, snow storms, 

 lightning, &c, require but a passing notice. The leaders of trees 

 belonging to the Fir and Pine tribe, and some of the Taxodise, are 

 sometimes snapped off by high winds. When the breakage includes 

 no more of the stem than the last season's growth, the injury is 

 often repaired in Firs and Pines, by one of the branches in the 

 uppermost whorl gradually ascending and taking the place of the 

 missing leader. But not unfrequently more than one of the branches 

 in the highest tier become transformed into leaders ; the stem thence 

 becomes forked, and the symmetry of the tree impaired. The 

 remedy in that case is simply to remove the weaker of the rival 

 leaders. If more of the trunk than the latest growth is broken off 

 the tree becomes irremediably deformed. When the breakage occurs 

 near the ground, the injury results in the death of the tree, as no 

 member of the Fir and Pine tribe has the power of sending out new 

 shoots from any part of its trunk or from its roots. Breakage by 



