188G.J THE LARCH AS AN AVENUE TREE. 739 



THE LAllCH AS AX AVENUE TUEE. 



CONSIDElilXG the grace and beauty of the larch, and the rich 

 variety and delicate hues of its foliage from the time it 

 opens in such tender beauty in the spring to the time it sheds 

 its golden foliage in the autumn, it is surprising that it has 

 not been more used as an avenue tree. It is almost impossible to 

 conceive anything more pleasing than long single or donble lines 

 of larches supporting a straight road of a mile or more in length, 

 till they vanished into a point in tlie far distance, and seemed to 

 pierce the blue sky. Unless indeed it were similar lines contrasted 

 behind with others of the white or the Douglass spruce. I am 

 anxious to hear from your readers whether any such avenues now 

 exist in this country, and what valid objections can be urged against 

 their use on soils and situations suitable for their growth. 



It has long been a puzzle to me why such beautiful and withal 

 such common and useful trees as the larch, spruce, and Scotch pine 

 are not more employed for avenues, and the formation and enrich- 

 ment of landscapes. Can this paucity of use for ornament have 

 arisen from their general planting for profit ? If so, it is time that 

 such artificial boundaries between trees for ornament and profit were 

 abolished. Of course in districts where extensive plantations of 

 either of these trees abound, it is not only natural, but in harmony 

 with correct taste, that landscape gardeners and the planters of 

 avenues should choose, as far as practicable, other trees than those 

 used in such broad masses in plantations. The desire for new 

 forms and colours, and the necessity for novelty as well as contrast, 

 render this imperative. 



But this is no reason at all why those so-called common trees 

 should not be used for the formation of avenues, and in landscapes 

 in districts where other and very frequently the more common 

 deciduous and round or spreading headed trees predominate. Though 

 fashion prevails to such an extent in these matters that our best, 

 fastest-growing trees are too often set aside in favour of others, 

 selected in virtue of their rarity or exotic origin, and also because, 

 forsooth, they are never likely to be grown in our climate for the 

 value of their timber. This is altogether a spurious taste, for other 

 conditions being equal, the more valuable the timber is likely 

 to become of any tree employed either in forming avenues or 

 landscapes, the more freely it should be planted ; and happily in 

 arboriculture beauty and utility are very frequently linked together. 

 Though these trees are especially suggested for avenues, of course 

 neither of these, nor any other coniferous trees, including our cedars of 



