those of the spruce balsam fir, and Thuya, which often grow with it, and it was only where clearings had been made, or in wet places on the edge of the groves, that they seemed able to thrive. Their growth is slow at first, but when established may be as much as two feet annually.
Dr. Bell gives the probable life of the white spruce in Canada as from 100 to 140 years, that of the black spruce 150 to 175 years, and that of tamara 175 or 200 years. Of the latter he says:’ About 1893 or 1894 the imported sawfly? came up from the direction of New York and got into the forests north of the Ottawa river. Ina year or two it reached James bay and killed the tamarack throughout that district, which was only able to live three or four years after it was first attacked by the larva. This destruction continued to spread to the centre of Labrador, and now it has gone pretty well all over that great peninsula. But Mr. J.C. Langelier (loc. cit. p. 65); speaking of the same attack in the northern part of the province of Quebec, says that a great portion of the young trees were spared, and that the dead trees which remain standing are not attacked by rot, and would supply excellent railway ties.
Remarkable Trees
In this country there are not many large trees of this species, though it was introduced, according to Loudon,’ by the Duke of Argyll in 1760 at Whitton, near Hounslow. It has been entirely neglected by modern arboriculturists, and is seldom or never procurable in English nurseries. The largest trees that I know of are at Dropmore, where there is a well-grown tree 78 feet by 5 feet (Plate 110), and at Arley Castle, where there are three trees of nearly the same size standing together, of which the best measures 71 feet by 4 feet 8 inches. A fourth is nearly as large, and differs in having larger cones.
At Boynton, Yorkshire, there are two in a wet situation among other trees, about 50 feet high and sixty years old, which were raised by Sir Charles Strickland from seed produced by trees planted by his grandfather. These again have pro- duced fertile seeds, from which seedlings are growing vigorously in a low frosty situation at Colesborne and have never suffered from frost or bug, though one of them in 1906 was attacked by Peziza. Sir Charles adds that on dry soil they have grown very badly.
At Beauport there are three rather stunted specimens of American larch, one of which, however, is 5 feet 10 inches in girth, and has the bark very smooth in comparison with the common larch. No specimen seems to have been sent to the Conifer Conference, but one is mentioned as growing in the grounds of Dalkeith Palace,‘ which we have identified with L. dahurica. Several trees mentioned by Loudon are either not now in existence or were not correctly named. (H.J.E.)
1 Can. For. Ass. Annual Report, 1905, Pp. 59.
2 According to Sargent this is Nematus Erichsonii, Hartig, a European insect which was not much noticed in America before 1880, and which has recently attacked the larch in England. Cf. supra, p. 364.
3 Op. cit. 2400, 2401. The original tree at Whitton was between 40 and 50 feet high in 1837: it has long since been cut down.
4 Veitch’s Man. Coniferæ, 390 note (1900).
