rUllCHASlNG PLANTS. 



91 



This disease generally ends in the death of the 

 plants, yet they often retain a lively appearance 

 during the whole of the winter after they have been 

 attacked by it. In purchasing birch, therefore, it is 

 proper to see and bespeak them in summer, when 

 it may be ascertained by barely looking at them, 

 whether they are in this morbid state or not. I 

 should have observed, likewise, that the minute 

 white insect, which is so fatal to the larch in plan- 

 tations, sometimes, though more rarely, and never 

 before the plant has entered its second year, attacks 

 it in the nursery. It is proper, therefore, to take 

 the same precaution in purchasing larches more than 

 one year old, as has just been recommended with 

 regard to birches. 



These are all the kinds of forest trees that I have 

 observed to be liable to disease of a serious kind in 

 the nursery ; or the distempers incident to other 

 varieties are not, at least, of that insidious kind 

 which make progress, while the plant may seem, to 

 the inexperienced eye, in a state of perfect health j 

 and thus lead to deception. 



In commissioning plants from such a distance, 

 that it is necessary, for the sake of convenience of 

 carriage, to pack them up in mats or otherwise, 

 strict orders should be given that those which carry 



