BEAUTY OF THE LARCH. 113 



Close planting is however necessary in rearing 

 timber in bleak and exposed situations. On moun- 

 tainous situations, where there is an inequality of 

 surface the tree does better, as well as in those cases 

 where forests of larch are indigenous, the trees being 

 unequal in size and age. 



The larch is the only genus of the Natural order 

 Conifera, or cone-bearing tribe, that is composed of 

 deciduous trees, and when young is of quicker growth 

 than any of the others, and for that reason it is the 

 best adapted for extirpating furze and rank herbage. 

 For this purpose two-year transplanted plants are 

 employed, which ought to be placed in the ground 

 immediately after the furze has been cut down. When 

 planted somewhat closely together, say three to four 

 feet apart, they in most cases overtop the furze and 

 smother it, and thus as it were clear the ground for 

 themselves. 



The common larch is the only tree that is really 

 worth cultivating for timber, the other species being, 

 in comparison with it, feeble and ungainly. 



It is a beautiful tree in appearance, possessing an 

 elegant conical form, which in favourable situations 

 assumes the greatest regularity of outline at all stages 

 of its growth. It has a straight trunk, which becomes 

 massive when sufficient space is allotted to it to grow 

 in, throwing out horizontal branches which assume a 

 pendent figure as the tree advances in age, with sub- 

 sidiary branches which spring from the main ones and 

 assume a drooping habit of growth. The leaves, which 

 are of bright green, are brought forth in the form of 

 bundles, except on the young shoots, where they grow 

 individually. The tree brings forth its male and 



