6 THE LARCH. 



in particular has the local reputation of being the first 

 larch planted in England. Moreover, in the following 

 plantations a group of fine larches may be seen, which 

 may well be contemporary with those at Dunkeld. 

 There is a tradition, indeed, that they were really 

 planted at the same time. The Duke of Athole and 

 Mr. More were fellow-members of the Council of the 

 Eoyal Society, and the story runs that More planted 

 them the week before those at Dunkeld, and that hence 

 the Linley larches and those at Dunkeld came from 

 the same batch ; but the most surprising feature per- 

 haps is a clump of larches of about the same size and 

 age as the famous larches of Dunkeld. The planting 

 of the beautiful valley was evidently done by a man 

 of knowledge, judgment, and taste, the groups being 

 placed with a view to effect, monotony of form and 

 colour being avoided by the disposition of the masses." 

 The exact date of its introduction into England, and 

 by whom, will probably remain unknown ; but well- 

 authenticated accounts state, that it was introduced 

 about the end of the sixteenth or beginning of the 

 seventeenth century. Gerard, a physician in London, 

 in his Catalogue published in i 596, mentions the larch. 

 Parkinson, a London apothecary, writing in 1629, gives 

 an account of its introduction into England, and speaks 

 of it as a rare tree, associating it with the ornamental 

 class rather than the useful. Again, in his " Theatrum 

 Botanicum," pp. 1533-34 (published in 1640), he 

 gives a full description of the larch, with an account 

 of its uses and virtues. Evelyn, in his first edition of 



