2366 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART III. 



sun melts the resin contained in the wood, which, running down the sides, 

 fills up the interstices between the logs ; and the edifice, thus rendered im- 

 penetrable to air and moisture, will last for centuries without alteration." 

 This tree, says Malesherbes, " is the highest, the straightest, and the most 

 incorruptible of all the Swiss indigenous woods. It is excellent for all pur- 

 poses ; and is so much sought after, that, in several cantons of Switzerland, 

 a piece of larch wood costs double the price of a piece of oak wood of the 

 same dimensions." Notwithstanding this, the same author adds that, after 

 many experiments, the wood of the larch has been found unsuitable for masts. 

 (See p. 2361.) No wood remains uninjured by water longer than the larch ; 

 and, for this reason, it is in general use, in France and Switzerland, for water- 

 pipes. At Aix, Marseilles, and throughout the greater part of Provence, 

 where the land is frequently irrigated, the pipes used to convey the water to 

 the ground are always of larch. In Provence, it is also much used by the 

 cabinet-makers, as, from the closeness of its grain, it takes a fine polish. 

 (^Noiiv. Du Ham.) Desfontaines, in his Histoire des Arbres et Arbrisseaux, 

 gives a very interesting report made by M. Boissel de Monville on the uses 

 of the larch. This account confirms what previous writers had asserted 

 respecting the durability of the cottages in the Vallais ; and adds that larch 

 wood is much used, in Switzerland, for shingles to cover the roofs of the houses, 

 and for vine pro{)s. For the latter purpose, it is found the most durable of 

 all kinds of wood : the vine props made of it are never taken up ; they remain 

 fixed for an indefinite succession of years, and see crop after crop of vines 

 spring up, bear their fruit, and perish at their feet, without showing any 

 symptoms of decay. In most cases, the proprietors of the vineyards are per- 

 fectly ignorant of the e[)och when these props were first placed there : they 

 received them in their present state from their fathers, and in the same 

 state they will transmit them to their sons. Props made of the silver fir, 

 and used in the same soil for the same purpose, would not last more than ten 

 years. In traversing the forests of the Alps, continues M. Boissel, " I found 

 frequent proofs of the excellence of the wood of the larch. The lightning 

 often strikes and shatters these trees, the winds break them, and the 

 effects of time cause them to perish by old age ; all these modes of destruc- 

 tion, and many others, made me find a great number of mutilated and dead 

 trees in these forests. Those which were mutilated had not perished on 

 that account. The branches which remained uninjured were still growing 

 with vigour ; the heart wood was sound and unchanged ; and the tree con- 

 tinued to live during a long series of years. The wood, even of those 

 quite dead, showed no signs of decay, and had evidently remamed in the same 

 state a great number of years. I gathered several of the branches, and di- 

 vided some of the trunks of the dead trees ; and, though some of the branches 

 were become so brittle as to break easily with the fingers, and the wood of 

 the trunks so dry as to separate into scales, neither showed the least signs 

 of rottenness. The silver fir, on the contrary, when broken or shattered by 

 lightning, soon perishes ; and the wood of dead trees, in the course of a few 

 years, becomes quite rotten." (Hist, des Arb., &c., ii. p. 603.) The fine grain 

 of the larch wood, its durability, and its not being subject to crack, have 

 long made it used by painters for their palettes, and even to paint their pic- 

 tures on. According to Pliny, it was employed for this purpose by the ancients 

 (lib. xvi. c. 39.) ; and Evelyn tells us that several of the paintings of Raphael 

 are on larch wood. 



The resinous Products of the Larch are, Venice turpentine, and the manna 

 deBrian^on ; and both are used in the state in which they are procured from 

 the tree. To obtain the turpentine, trees are chosen which ai'e neither too 

 young nor too old ; as only full-!;rown trees, not yet in a state of decay, will 

 yield good turpentine. When the sap begins to be in motion in spring, if a 

 few drops of turpentine are seen exuding from the bark, it is a proof tiiat the 

 tree is full of resinous juice; and, if the trunk were sjilit, there would be 

 found, Sin. or 6 in. from the heart of the tree, and Sin. or 10 in. from the 



