192 THE LARCH. 



spruce, have been planted at the same time, the larch 

 outgrows and overtops them all ; and in summer, 

 when it is in the full luxuriance of its leaves (which 

 are a bright clover green), it rises over the dark forest 

 like an obelisk of beryl. It also sheds its leaves, 

 and is probably by that means saved from those 

 keen winter blasts that prove so destructive to pines. 

 Even when naked it is an ornamental tree. The trunk 

 is generally straight, tapering gradually to a point ; the 

 branches, which are rather small in proportion to the 

 tree, taper up in the form of a perfect cone ; and the 

 whole either of a lively brown streaked with yellow, 

 or one golden glow of spiral turrets, towering high, 

 till hid in the mountain cloud. 



