8 THE LAKCH. 



tlie Duke of Athole, five of which were planted at 

 Dunkeld and eleven at Blair-Athole. Those left at 

 Dunkeld were for a time kept in the greenhouse, but 

 either on account of their rapid growth or apparent 

 sickliness by shedding their leaves, they were turned 

 outside to do for themselves, and two of them (as 

 shown in our illustration) still remain, but are very 

 different plants now. 



That the larch ran many 'narrow escapes of entire 

 expulsion and repudiation is confirmed by John Evelyn 

 in his " Silva," where he says : " I had in the former 

 editions of ' Silva ' placed the Larix among the trees 

 which shed their leaves in winter (as indeed does this), 

 but not before there is an almost immediate supply 

 of fresh leaves ; and may, therefore, both for its simili- 

 tude, stature, and productions, challenge rank among 

 the coniferous. We raise it of seeds, and it grows 

 spontaneously in Stirria, Carinthia, and other Alpine 

 countries. The change of the colour of the old leaf 

 made an ignorant gardener of mine eradicate what I 

 had brought up with much care, as dead; let this, there- 

 fore, be a warning. The leaves are thin, pretty long, 

 and bristly, the cones small, grow irregular, as do the 

 branches, like the cypress ; a very beautiful tree, the 

 ponderous branches bending a little, which makes it 

 differ from the Libanus coder, to which some would 

 have it allied, nor are any found in Syria. Of the 

 deep w^ounded bark the purest of our shop turpentine 

 (at least as reputed), as also the drug agaric. That 

 it flourishes w^ith us, a tree of good stature (not long 



