SOILS AXD SITUATIONS. 4 1 



gular and often fantastic canopy, a befitting subject 

 for an oil-painting. 



In the forest state, when grown in masses, it is 

 better that the tree be considerably drawn up, after 

 the first twenty years of its growth. By this means 

 the trees are grown so as to bend uniformly from top 

 to base, which is the great safeguard against blowing 

 down. Any one who has observed the mechanical 

 action of the fishing-rod must see that its regularly 

 bending form is its safety against breaking, and trees 

 to a very considerable extent may be made to resemble 

 in their growth the shape of the fishing-rod in a modi- 

 fied form by regulating the thinning. 



The roots of the larch should also be allowed perfect 

 freedom to spread in all directions, and as much as 

 possible on the surface, which, it will be observed, it 

 always does in situations where it best succeeds, and 

 attains greatest age and dimensions. No tree in the 

 forest is better adapted to withstand the winter's 

 severities than the larch ; its wood, if well ripened in 

 the preceding autumn, is as little liable to any climatic 

 influence, or injury from the most intense frost, as any 

 forest tree. Its buds, although they produce large 

 fascicles of leaves in spring, in winter show very 

 little external appearance of where they are to come 

 from. The buds of the larch in its dormant state are 

 very smaU, and well protected by the bark scales and 

 resinous covering on all sides ; so that there are always 

 remarkably few abortive buds to be seen. On the 

 other hand, as soon as the sap fills its vessels, and the 



