“Care should be taken not to purchase plants which betray symptoms of disease. When larches not more than three years old cast the whole, or even the greater part, of their leaves, just when the winter commences, it is a sure sign that they are in an unhealthy state, and that many of them will die in the course of next season; for, under this age, the larch should retain a considerable quantity of its old leaves till spring.”—“There is also a minute white insect, which is fatal to the larch in plantations, that sometimes attacks it in the nursery after it enters its second year; on this account, it is proper to examine the larch plants the summer previous to purchasing them.”—“Scots fir maybe regarded as sickly, when the points of the leaves become withered, or {334} when they change their naturally dark colours into a faint yellowish green. Any vestige of withering on the spruce or silver fir, is a sure prognostication of approaching decay. Any kind of fir which has lost its leader may be considered useless. “When plants are packed up in mats for the conveniency of carriage, strict orders should be given that those which carry their leaves in winter be taken up when they are entirely free from moisture. If they be pulled wet, they will heat and get mouldy in the packages. In the course of a few days good plants are often spoiled in this manner.” Mr Cruickshank does not swerve from the common foolish system, of inculcating a determinate character of soil as generally necessary for each kind of tree. We are angry with the dulness of the writers on location of timber; they will not comprehend that a tree has two ends, by both of which it draws moisture, though from different elements, earth and air. The dullest clown is sensible he requires to drink more under an arid sun than under a drizzling rain. The same holds of trees; if there be little evaporation of moisture from the leaves, and if the leaves, instead of exhaling, can frequently even imbibe water, from the plant occupying an elevated situation, where the air the greater part of the season {335} is cool, and nearly surcharged with moisture, the most porous, driest soil (sufficiently damp in such a situation), will generally be the most suitable; and trees of every kind will prosper in sands, in which, under a dry atmosphere, they would not have survived one summer; whereas in arid, warm, low country, the deepest, dampest loams and clays are generally the best suited for timber, provided water does not stagnate. And, besides, we have found varieties of the same kind or species of tree, _some of them adapted to prosper in dry air and soil, and others in moist air and soil_. Although the above causes prevent a positive limitation of certain kinds of trees to certain soils, yet there are some which have superior adaptation to moist soils and others to dry; some whose roots, from their fibrous soft character, can only spread luxuriantly on light, soft, or mossy