

OF FOREST-TREES. 



and Monteith, all confirming ind fur- 

 ther extolling the valuable properties 

 of the tree, which has induced a some- 

 what general belief, that the lurch is 

 the most valu; 1 . 



taki:-._ :ice of the oak. It is 



no wonder, therefore, that the larch 

 ,.nd largely, in al- 

 v kind of soil ; and as it is 

 not exempted from the influence of 

 that natural law to which every other 

 Tee is subject, namely, that 

 which restricts to peculiar soils the 

 perfect de\elopment of all the parts 

 of their structure and successful pro- 

 growth to the state of full 

 maturity or perfection in many in- 

 of it have failed 



in making a return of the expected 

 advantages, inu -i I.T i-vcn to the Scotch 

 pine, not to mention the oak, elm, 

 and ash, of ureater value on a similar 

 soil. On soils of the nature alluded 

 to, namely, wet clays, springy gravels, 

 and wherever stagnant moisture could 

 not escape, the larch, after attaining: 

 to eighteen or twenty-five years 

 growth, gives evidence of premature 

 B suspension of healthy pro- 

 i of growth, and when felled ex- 

 hibits unsound timber, commencing 

 in the centre of the leading roots, and 

 rating upwards into the body of 

 the tree. (S.> !.) The "in- 



stances are numerous which have 

 under our own observation of the 

 now stated ; and we mention it, 

 not with a view to detract from its 

 intrinsic value, or to discourage its 

 iii, but as a caution against 

 planting of it in 

 'eptiun or without due 

 lination. On declivities, and even 

 in hollows, where cla\s abound, but 

 where there is also a diaina^e for the 

 Tr, the larch we have 

 perfection-'. 



, larch and other non- 

 diietivc i: mentioned tit 



16 of the i- 



::<>! yet been 

 

 :* d, the opi- 



Win 



a romp. -i i 



:t in tlml II..- 



ii laic in 

 *prt of or early In untunm n\ 



.-IK! to which tin- lurch 



U *ry i. that MUM Whtn it* bhoots 



rtlaayouni tate. 



nion is greatly in favour of the com- 

 mon or white larch. 



The Cedar of Lebanon, Plnus cedrus, so 

 celebrated by the ancients for the va- 

 luable properties of its wood, such as 

 continuing sound for a thousand or two 

 thousand years, yielding an oil famous 

 for preserving books and writings, de- 

 stroying noxious insects, &c. has not 

 been proved in the climate of Britain 

 to aft'ord timber of a valuable quality ; 

 it is also more difficult to propagate 

 and of slower growth in its first stagrs 

 from seed than the firs, pines, and 

 larches to which it is allied : its cul- 

 ture, therefore, appears to have been 

 confined in this country to parks and 

 lawns, and doubtless there is no fo- 

 rest-tree that, when placed singly, or 

 in small groups, confers such an air 

 or impression of ancient grandeur and 

 dignity upon a mansion and its grounds 

 as a full grown Cedar of Lebanon. 

 It is a native of the coldest parts of 

 Mount Libanus, where now, accord- 

 ing to the accounts of travellers, it is 

 found in small numbers. Rauwolf, 

 in 1575, saw only twenty-four sound 

 trees and two old decayed ones. 

 Maundrell, who visited the supposed 

 site of this most ancient forest in 1696, 

 could reckon only sixteen large trees, 

 but many small ones. The largest mea- 

 sured twelve yards six inches in girth 

 and thirty-seven yards in the spread of 

 its branches. Professor Martyn re- 

 marks that Solomon's four- score thou- 

 sand hewers must have considerably 

 thinned the forest of Libanus. The 

 same excellent, author further observes, 

 that we have now probably more ce- 

 dars in England than are left on Mount 

 Libanus a fact which, when conjoined 

 with that regarding the present state 

 of the natural forests of America, men- 

 tioned at page 87, should afford matter 

 for deep and serious reflection to those 

 who have it in their power to plant 

 land, comparatively waste or unpro- 

 ductive, in a judicious manner, but 

 who hesitate, thus to benefit, their 

 ity and their country, from the 

 fallacious impression that the natural 

 forests of America and of the north of 

 Kumpe, unrenovated, as they continue 

 from the neglect of planting, 

 are inexhaustible, and will continue 

 to snjiply the \\antsof the. civil and 

 architectural sciences and arts 

 of this country. 



