ORNAMENTAL EFFECT. I9I 



and lovely when in full leaf, even as the birch or 

 willow. In mature old age, however, it spurns and 

 divests itself of all elegance and gracefulness, and not 

 unfrequently assumes the picturesque, unique, rugged, 

 and sometimes even the grotesque. As we claim the 

 right to say, " Some things are lawful but not expedient," 

 so may the larch say, " I am the right and proper tree, 

 and may lay claim to any situation in the domam, yet 

 to me all situations are not eligible." 



The larch is (not excepting the Scotch pine) probably 

 the most valuable of its tribe. The name s.eems de- 

 rived from the Celtic lar, fat, in allusion to the resinous 

 juice which it exudes. Dioscorides remarks that larix 

 is the Gaelic name for resin. Though a native of the 

 mountains of more southern regions, it thrives uncom- 

 monly well in Britain ; and as it grows more rapidly, 

 and also in more varied soils than the other, it is per- 

 haps better adapted for general cultivation. In the 

 south it attains an immense height, some single beams 

 of larch employed in the palaces and public buildings 

 of Venice beincr said to be 120 feet lonc^. Even in the 

 plantations of the Dukes of Athole and Argyle, and 

 other properties in Perthshire, Argyleshire, &c., some 

 larches are considerably over 100 feet high. The 

 wild alternation of hill and valley in these counties, 

 with the general opening of the glens and exposure 

 of the surface to the south, seem to afford the larch 

 a situation something like its native locality in the 

 T}Tolese and Dalmatian Alps ; for though other trees, 

 and some of them fast-growing ones, such as the 



