1 1 2 TREE-PLANTING. 



sold as an edible fruit, being very nutritious) and of a 

 sweet and agreeable flavour. The seeds of the 

 common kind are contained in a stout shell, but there 

 is another variety, P. /. fragilis, which has a thin 

 shell, easily broken, which is cultivated in Naples 

 entirely on account of its fruit. 



The resinous productions of pine trees are put to 

 various uses, and in some instances form no incon- 

 siderable items of commerce. From the Scotch pine 

 and pineaster are yielded tar, pitch, and lamp-black. 

 Spruce fir produces Burgundy pitch and the best 

 yellow resin. From the silver fir is extracted Stras- 

 burg turpentine, the only extract from the fir and 

 pine tribes which are used in the preparation of the 

 best varnishes. From the larch we get Venice tur- 

 pentine, which is greatly in request by veterinary 

 surgeons for the treatment of bruises, ulcers, and old 

 wounds, and of this tree I will now speak in detail. 



The Larch (Larix Europcea). The common larch 

 was introduced into England during the early part of 

 the seventeenth century, the account of its introduction 

 having been given by Parkinson, an apothecary of 

 London, who wrote in 1629. Evelyn also mentions a 

 larch tree of ample size and flourishing habit, in 1664, 

 which was growing at Chelmsford in Essex. No tree 

 suffers so much for want of sufficient space whilst 

 growing as the larch. Its leaves are tender and minute, 

 presenting only a small surface to the influence of 

 the sun, light, air, and moisture ; and therefore in a 

 crowded plantation, composed of trees of the same 

 height on a level, the leaves fail to elaborate the sap 

 necessary for the formation of timber, and the trunk 

 becomes bark-bound, bare, and stunted. 



