140 TSUGA, OR HEMLOCK SPRUCE FIRS 



under any full-grown Larch tree other than the Com- 

 mon Larch ? To illustrate the direction of my 

 thoughts in the case of the L. Dahurica (or L. Pendula), 

 did it happen, for instance, to grow near some fre- 

 quented path, " where up and down the people go "? 

 as they went on their road to Camelot in sight of the 

 ill-fated Lady of Shalott, how many of these passers- 

 by, in spite of its smoother bark and less rough 

 exterior, would dissociate it in their minds from the 

 accustomed sight of the Common Larch ? 



Of other Larch that call for attention there are 

 the three varieties that hail from Columbian shores 

 — by name the Americana, Occidentalis, and Lyalli. 



The Americana or Tamarac is the lover of swampy 

 wetlands, the natural frequenter of dreary morass and 

 marshland grounds. Why we have not tried it in 

 such places, why we have not been directed by the 

 schoolmen of forestry institutions and advisors of 

 improved methods to plant them in such places 

 alongside the much-prescribed Sitka, is a question 

 that must remain unanswered here and relegated to 

 the interrogative as far as we are concerned, but we 

 sometimes wonder. 



It is noted for its little leaves, and shares in common 

 with the Kurile Larch the reputation of bearing the 

 tiniest of cone fruit. The Tamarac is the tree that 

 has earned still further fame in directions aquatic, 

 for the important part it was called upon to play in 

 the constructive scheme of Hiawatha's canoe : 



Give me of your roots, O Tamarac, 

 Of your fibrous roots, O Larch tree. 

 My canoe to bind together, 

 So to bind the ends together 

 That the water may not enter. 

 That the river may not wet me. 



We can only piously hope that it gave satisfaction 



