158 INJURIES TO MARITIME PINE. 



ing up seed not completely covered ; and the squirrels which abound 

 in pine woods gnaw the cones and destroy the seed while it is yet on 

 the tree. But these do also still greater damage, by eating away the 

 bark near the sprout, whereby not only is the growth arrested, but 

 the stem enfeebled at this point is often broken across by the wind. 

 But, contrary to what occurs in Sologne and some other districts in 

 which the tree is of feeble growth, and the ravages of the squirrel are 

 most detrimental, in some places on the coast, where the growth is 

 luxuriant, the finest trees are found on places where the squirrel 

 abounds. This is attributed to their destroying the cones which are 

 so abundant as to enfeeble trees by their production, and these being 

 . destroyed, the vigour, which otherwise might have gone out in pro- 

 vision for reproduction, is directed to the self-development of the 

 tree. Sheep also are destructive to young seedlings, by browsing on 

 the sprout and the more tender buds ; this is the work of a few 

 seconds, but the seedling, deprived of the sprout on the main shoot, 

 remains ever after irregular in its growth, stunted and bushy. 



But the most destructive effects are found to be connected with 

 the appearance of certain insects on the trees. It is open to question, 

 however, whether these insects be the cause or the effect of the evil 

 done, or whether, as I think not unlikely, judging from what I have 

 seen in similar cases, with other insects and other trees, their increase 

 be not a result of disease, and the cause or occasion of death. Under 

 the ravages of insects sometimes whole forests suffer, and the entire 

 destruction of all the woods in a province seems imminent, while 

 man is powerless to arrest the evil; and the maritime pine, like other 

 trees, is subject to such damage. 



M. Perris, of Mont-de-Marsan, in the Landes, an eminent French 

 entomologist, who for years found occupation in observing the habits 

 and transformations of insects which there prey upon this tree, so 

 early as 1864 had recorded in the Annates de la Societe entomologique 

 of France, that upwards of 120 species of insects live upon it 

 parasitically. 



Certain of these insects attack the leaves or the terminal buds of 

 shoots, and so produce physiological effects, which enfeeble the tree, 

 and induce a state of disease. Amongst these are the caterpillars of 

 the Bornhyx pityocampa, of the Tortrix buoliana, and of the Hylurgus 

 piniperda. Others attack the wood, and betake themselves to the 

 wood and the bark. Amongst these are the Tomicus stenographus, 

 laricis and lidens, the Melanophila tarda, and the Pissodes notatus. It 

 is alleged to be indisputable that the former class attack trees in a 



