SUBSTITUTES FOR LARCH. 
Mackenzie, on the " Timber of Exotic Conifers." To these and 
other papers in the same volume the speaker alluded as the 
sources whence he had himself derived much information, as also 
from Dr. Somerville's paper on the "Larch Disease" in the 
Transactions of the English Arboricultural Society, vol. iii. 
part iv. (1894). 
The standard communications on Larch disease of Prof. 
Marshall Ward and Mr. J. J3. Carruthers were alluded to, 
whilst for information on American trees and timber the Report 
on the forests of North America (exclusive of Mexico) in the 
Tenth Census Report, published by Prof. Sargent in 1884, is all 
but inexhaustible. The volumes of Dr. Schlich's " Manual of 
Forestry " may also be consiilted with advantage. The reports 
of Mr. J. G. Lemmon to the California Board of Forestry for 
1887 to 1888, 1889 to 1890, are full of valuable detail, but are 
unfortunately not easily accessible. 
Dealing first with species which have been long enough ni 
cultivation to allow of an estimate of their merits being made, 
the speaker said that for most practical purposes probably the 
Corsican Pine, Pinus Laricio, will be found the best. It is 
perfectly hardy, grows rapidly, produces plenty of seed, yields 
excellent timber, which is easily worked, and, taking all things 
into consideration, is probably the best substitute for Larch that 
we have. 
The Weymouth Pine, Pinus Strobus, has been cultivated in 
this country for a century and a half, but though much esteemed 
in the United States, it has proved a disappointment in this 
country. It was introduced to Longleat, in Wiltshire, in 1700. 
As to Abies Nordmamiiana, the Crimean Silver Fir, the 
speaker believed it to be one of the best timber trees we have, its 
wood being probably better than that of the Silver Fir. It is 
hardy, not fastidious as to soil, a quick grower, and not liable to be 
injured by spring frosts as the Silver Fir is. Some specimens of 
the timber shown were excellent in quality, and were produced 
from a tree grown by the speaker, which unfortunately had 
to be felled in consequence of the attacks of a woolly aphis or 
Chermes, to the attacks of which this tree seems unfortunately 
particularly liable. 
The Douglas Fir, Pseudotsuga Douglasii, is considered by 
many foresters to be the very best substitute for Larch, and there 
