pPant "bore, Isege^/, rm^ TSLjric/'. 403 



Virgin fell upon it when she was nursing Jesus, and endowed it 

 with miraculous virtues. 



LARCH. — There has long been a superstitious belief that 

 the wood of the Larch-tree (Pinus Larix) is impenetrable by fire, and 

 a story is told by Vitruvius of a castle besieged by Caesar, which, 

 from being built largely of Larch timber, was found most difficult 



to consume. Evelyn calls the Larch a " goodly tree, which is 



of so strange a composition, that 'twill hardly burn ; whence the 

 Mantuan, Et robttsia Larix igni impenetrabile ligmwt, for so Cajsar 



found it." Tiberius construcfled several bridges of this timber, 



and the Forum of Augustus, at Rome, was built with it. Evelyn 



tells of a certain ship found many years ago in the Numidian Sea, 

 twelve fathoms under water, which was chiefly built of Larch and 

 Cypress, so hardened as long to resist the fire or the sharpest tool. 

 Nor, he adds, " was anything perished of it, though it had lain 



above a thousand and four hundred years submerged." A Manna 



is obtained from the Larch, called in the South of France Manna 

 de Briant^on ; it is very rare, and met with only in little drops that 



adhere to the leaves. In the case of a forest fire, if Larches are 



scorched to the pith, the inner part exudes a gum, called Orenburg 

 gum, which the mountaineers masticate in order to fasten their 

 teeth. Ben Jonson, in the ' Masque of Queens,' speaks of the gum 

 or turpentine of the Larch as being used in witchcraft. A witch 

 answers her companion : — 



" Yes, I have brought (to help your vows) 

 Homed Poppy, Cypress-boughs, 

 The Fig-tree wild, that grows on tombs, 

 And juice that from the Larch-tree comes, 

 The basilisk's blood and the viper's skin : 

 And now our orgies let's begin." 



According to a Tyrolean tradition, the Seliges Fraulein, dressed in 

 white, repairs to an aged Larch beneath whose shelter she sings. 



Lucan includes the " gummy Larch " among the articles 



burned to drive away serpents. M. de Rialle, quoted in Mytho- 



thologu des Plantes, relates that a group of seven Larches constituted 

 for the Ostiaks a sacred grove. Everyone passing was expected to 

 leave an arrow, and formerly it was customary to suspend skins 

 there, so that in course of time an immense quantity was accumu- 

 lated. As these offerings were frequently stolen by strangers, the 

 Ostiaks decided to fell one of the Larches and remove the stump 

 to some secret locality where they might pay their devotions 

 without fear of sacrilege. M. de Rialle found the same Larch 

 worship at Berezof : there a tree fifty feet high, and so old that 

 only its top bore foliage, received the homage of the Ostiaks, who 

 showed their piety by turning to good account its singular confor- 

 mation : about six feet from the ground the trunk of the tree 

 became divided into two limbs, which joining again a little higher 



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