Pseudotsuga 827 



the plants frequently die. There is an illustrated article on this fungus in the Journal 

 of the Board of Agriculture for June 1903. 



I am informed by Capt. the Hon. R. Coke that in January 1907 there was 

 a bad attack of this fungus, on two-year-old plants in the nurseries at Weasenham, 

 Norfolk, and on some trees of the same age which were planted out in the 

 previous autumn. He was advised at Kew to burn all the affected plants, and 

 spray the remainder with "Violet Mixture."^ About 25 per cent of the infected 

 plants died or were removed as worthless ; the remainder outgrew the disease, and 

 are now (June 1908) looking well, though the fungus has not entirely disappeared. 

 Capt. Coke adds that, after trying the so-called Colorado variety, he will plant 

 no more of them ; and that as seedlings of the Oregon variety vary a good 

 deal, he prefers those which show a tendency to stop growing in time to ripen their 

 leader. 



The seeds are liable to be destroyed by the larva of an insect," Megastigmus 

 spermotrophus, which has been introduced into Europe from Oregon. The eggs 

 are laid by the insect in the young cones, and one larva develops in each seed and 

 destroys it. This pest has been observed at Mariabrunn, and has done great 

 damage in Denmark ; and during 1905 and 1906 was so serious at Durris in Aber- 

 deenshire, that no seed was worth collecting there. 



Remarkable Trees and Plantations 



The largest tree that we have heard of in Europe, is at Eggesford, in Devon- 

 shire (Plate 229). This tree must be as old as any existing, for it was reported^ in 

 1865 to be then about forty years old and 100 feet high. This, however, was an 

 exaggeration, as three years later it was recorded* by Mr. A. Spreadbury, as being 

 93 feet by 12 feet at three feet from the ground. I measured it carefully in com- 

 pany with Mr. Asprey, agent to the Earl of Portsmouth, in April 1908, and found 

 it, by the mean of two measurements from opposite sides, to be 128 feet by 18^ feet. 

 About four feet from the ground two very large spreading branches come off, which at 

 two feet from the trunk are 6 feet 9 inches and 5 feet in girth. At 30 feet from 

 the ground, the stem is still 13 feet 5 inches round, and at 100 feet it girths 3 feet 

 3 inches ; so that it must contain about 700 feet of timber. It grows on a lawn 

 facing east, a little above the river Exe, on a soil which is evidently deep and 

 fertile ; and if the top is not broken may become a much larger tree, though it has 

 only increased 35 feet in height in forty years. 



The largest tree in the grounds at Endsleigh was reported by Mr. R. G. Forbes 

 to be, in 1906, 100 feet high, with a quarter-girth of 26 inches in the middle; but 

 in remeasuring it by climbing in 1908, he informs me that it is orily measurable to a 

 height of 87 feet. The quarter-girth over bark at 43J feet is 26|- inches. Allowing 



1 This is composed of sulphate of copper, 2 lbs. ; carbonate of copper, 3 lbs. ; permanganate of potash, 3 oz. ; soft soap, 

 J lb. ; rain water, 18 gallons. 



' Cf. Card. Chron. xxxix. 57 (1906), Trans. R. Scot. Arb. Soc. xix. 52 (1906), xaA Joum. Board Agriculture, xii. 615 

 (1906), where an article on the insect with figures is given by Dr. R. Stewart MacDougall. 



s Trans. Scot. Arb. Soc. iii. 80. * Card. Chron. 1868, p. 1 1 89. 



