416 REPORT OX LA11CH FORESTS. 



land at the present time. In order, therefore, that the reader 

 may the more clearly apprehend the leading causes of success 

 and failure, it may be expedient that I should give a short 

 detail of the rise and progress of the tree in this country. 



Introduction of the tree. — It is well ascertained that the larch 

 was known as a rare tree in the Apothecary Gardens of London, 

 during the third decade of the seventeenth century. Evelyn, 

 in 1664, mentions it a flourishing and ample tree at Chelmsford; 

 and in 1731 large trees stood at Wimbledon, and yielded an 

 abundant crop of cones yearly; and plants were then common in 

 English nurseries. It was in the year 1738 that Mr Menzies of 

 Meggernie brought small plants of the tree from London, and 

 left five at Dunkeld, and eleven at Blair, as presents to the 

 Duke of Athole. These sixteen plants, no doubt, formed the 

 source from whence sprang the great proportion of the larch 

 plantations throughout Scotland during the last and early 

 portion of the present centuries. And although it was, no 

 doubt, the most important accession to the arboriculture of the 

 country that occurred during the century, yet it appears to 

 have been a reintroduction of the tree, for, according to Head- 

 rick's Agriculture of Angus, the larch was first planted in Scot- 

 land shortly after the middle of the seventeenth century. He 

 says, in 1813 — " It is generally supposed that larches were first 

 brought to this country by one of the Dukes of Athole about 

 eighty or ninety years ago. But I saw three larch trees of extra- 

 ordinary size and age in the garden near the mansion house of 

 Lockhart of Lee,, on the northern banks of the Clyde, a few miles 

 below Lanark. The stems and branches were so much covered 

 with lichens that they hardly exhibited any signs of life or 

 vegetation. The account I had of them was that they had been 

 brought there by the celebrated Lockhart of Lee, who had been 

 ambassador to Oliver Cromwell at the Court of France soon 

 after the restoration of Charles II. After Cromwell's death, 

 thinking himself unsafe on account of having served an usurper, 

 he retired some time into the territories of Venice. He there 

 observed the great use the Venetians made of larches in ship- 

 building, in piles for buildings, and other purposes ; and when 

 he returned home he brought a number of larch plants in pots, 

 with a view to try if they could gradually be made to endure 

 the climate of Scotland. He nursed his plants in hot-houses 

 and a greenhouse sheltered from the cold, till they all died, 

 except the three alluded to. These, in desperation, he planted 

 in the warmest and best sheltered part of his garden, where 

 they attained an extraordinary height and girth."* Now, it is so 



* General View of the Agriculture of the County of Angus or Forfarshire, drawn 

 up for the consideration of the Board of Agriculture, by the Rev. James Head- 

 rick, minister of Duuuichen. Edinburgh: Keill & Co. 1813. 



