The Scotch Pine (_Pinus sylvestris_) is a native of North Britain, where its fine trees in large forests or in great clumps, form a peculiar and at times magnificent appearance. It is much used in planting in this country, principally as a nurse; but its young sticks are not so durable as those of the spruce, and much inferior to the larch. Its larger wood forms the red deal—a timber so much used in all kinds of carpentry as to give this tree a high value among timber trees. The Larch (_Larix Europæa_) is a deciduous tree of the order, and though it has not been introduced into general use for very many years, yet its value is daily becoming more fully developed; and as a tree for general plantation, either as a nurse or in belts, it has few, if any, equals. As a curious tree, it appears to have been grown early in the eighteenth century, and some fine trees are noticed by Selby at Dalwick in Peeblesshire, and at Monzie in Argyleshire. The largest larch which we have noticed was one which was felled in Oakley Park. It had previously been injured by being struck with lightning, by which large pieces of the bark had been torn away. We examined it at Lord Bathurst’s desire, when it was found to be bored into from the base of the trunk to as high as we could see, by that curious insect the _Sirex gigas_, whose hornet-like appearance causes so much consternation in the pine forests in Germany, from which it is often introduced into the dwellings of the peasant with fir logs. It is quite as large as the hornet, and much of the same bright colours, but its apparent sting of more than half an inch in length is only an ovipositor, so that that formidable-looking creature is perfectly harmless after all. This tree was nearly twelve feet in circumference, at three feet from the ground, in which condition its lower drooping branches give the larch a fine picturesque appearance. Larches, and, indeed, the whole of the _Coniferæ_, are best procured for planting from the nursery, and much time will ultimately be saved by planting them as soon after removal as possible, and that by the pit method; and so done, larch, unlike most other young trees, shoots away at once, and soon allows of thinning to profit. We now bring this subject to an end, for the want of space; but we cannot part with friends we love so much without a benediction; in the words of Cowley then we say,— Hail, old patrician trees! DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. Plate I. QUERCUS ROBUR PEDUNCULATA, nat. size, from Oakley Park, Cirencester. Fig. _a._ _Petiole_, or leaf-stalk. Fig. _b._ _Peduncle_, or fruit-stalk. Plate II. QUERCUS ROBUR SESSILIFLORA, from Wyre Forest, near Kidderminster. Fig. _a._ _Petiole_. Fig. _b._ _Peduncle_.