142 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



disease of the Spruce, said to be found " all over Germany," 

 and due to the hitherto unsuspected parasitism of a Se^ptoriaf 

 and so the work goes on. 



III. The Laeches. 



The European Larch is apt to suffer very much from com- 

 binations of circumstances in the environment, when planted 

 in this country ; and when one compares the conditions under 

 which it is attempted to grow it with those prevailing in the 

 natural home of this tree, the wonder is, surely, not that our 

 Larches suffer, but rather that any of them escape. 



The European Larch is a native of the Alps, and of the 

 higher mountains of Northern Europe, growing naturally at 

 altitudes which ensure a pure atmosphere, brilliant sunlight, 

 plenty of distributed moisture, and rapid drainage ; in its 

 mountain home it has a relatively long and thorough winter rest, 

 from w^hich, like Alpine plants generally, it rapidly awakens 

 late in spring, and then makes vigorous growth through the 

 brilliant and comparatively hot summer. 



In this country the diseases of the Larch are almost all 

 initiated by late frosts, damp soil, insufficient sunlight, and 

 alternations of periods of drought with periods of excessive 

 moisture, in various degrees of combination. 



Late frosts, or chills which approach such, are among the 

 most deadly agents. The tender tufts of bright green foliage, 

 to which the Larches owe their spring beauty, are usually forced 

 out in this country from a month or six weeks too soon— as com- 

 pared with what occurs in the Alps, &c. — and the succulent 

 shoots and leaves are thus apt to suffer from the sudden on- 

 coming of cold winds or frosts as they slowly drag along their 

 precarious development. Once they get well over this early 

 dilatory period of sprouting, all is safe ; their safety is ensured 

 in their mountain heights by (1) their not beginning to awake 

 from the long winter rest till danger of frosts is practically over, 

 and (2) by the extreme rapidity with which they run through the 

 period of tenderness. 



Our damp climate, moreover, is calculated to bring it about 

 that the roots of Larches, as of other Conifers, run risks not 

 likely to be incurred in the rapidly drained soils of their Alpine 

 homes. But the conditions referred to thus briefly are just those 



