246 THE LARCH. 



are the only ones it essentially dreads, and it is never 

 found in that kind of soil. I think there is some exag- 

 geration in saying that it is fond of pebbly ground. It 

 may grow in a soil composed of stones and gravel, but it 

 does not flourish in too strong a soil, and amongst too hard 

 pebbles. Its roots find too little room for expansion in 

 them, and the tree is always stunted. Light and sandy 

 soils do not suit it either in our climate, which is sub- 

 ject to long droughts during the summer ; but if the 

 sands are moderately damp, the larch grows well in it. 

 M. de Charpentier mentions on this head, the magnifi- 

 cent plantations of Moritzbourg, near Dresden, which 

 grow in sands almost pure, not marshy, but habitually 

 and moderately moistened by the filtrations from large 

 ponds in the neighbourhood. Thus all extremes in the 

 nature of the soil are hurtful to the larch, but other- 

 wise it thrives in all common soils. If it does not 

 grow well on soils where pines flourish, it is because 

 the latter like hard and dry soils, which the larch does 

 not. I do not know if the juices exhaled from the 

 roots of the pines are hurtful to the larch, but I 

 would be inclined to think so, since those two trees 

 are of the same family, and must throw out resinous 

 matters analogous to each other. Your observation 

 would tend to confirm this result of theory. The 

 elevation above the level of the sea may have more 

 influence on the phenomena than the soil, but only in 

 an indirect manner. Thus we might mention the exist- 

 ence of beautiful plantations of larches at very different 

 heights, provided other circumstances compensate for 



