INTRODUCTIOX INTO GREAT BRITAIN. 7 



" Silva," published in 1662, gives such an account 

 of it as to lead to the conclusion that it had at that 

 period been a considerable number of years in this 

 country ; for he speaks of trees being of goodly stature, 

 and their branches hoary with lichens, indicating that 

 they had stood to old age and attained large dimen- 

 sions. Such trees may have grown very rapidly, and 

 attained a great height and a green old age — unless, 

 indeed, we conclude Evelyn had mistaken the tree, 

 which he evidently sometimes did. Miller, in his 

 first number of the " Gardener's Dictionary," published 

 in 173 I, says the tree was then common in England, 

 and some trees of large size at Wimbledon were bear- 

 ing cones abundantly. 



In another edition of his " Dictionary," published 

 in 1759, he says the larch is plentiful and common in 

 most of the English nurseries, many trees being planted 

 in forest ground, while those in the poorest and worst 

 soil are growinsf best. 



As already said, it is uncertain who really intro- 

 duced the larch into Britain, and the exact date of its 

 first being planted. It is, however, stated that Sir 

 James Nasmyth, Dawick House, Peeblesshire, planted 

 some trees about 1725, and that Lord Kames planted 

 some at Blair-Drummond in 1734. Mr. Menzies of 

 Migeny, in Glenlyon, Perthshire, planted some at his 

 residence in 1738, of which more will be said here- 

 after. These he brought from London in his port- 

 manteau, and tradition says that of the same sample 

 he made a present of sixteen small plants to His Grace 



