264 



THE POPULAR EDUCATOR. 



RECREATIVE NATURAL HISTORY. 



FIR-TKEES AND PINE-CONES. 



THERE is to me an inexplicable charm in the fir-needle-carpeted, 

 cone-strewn, aromatic, and shaded glides of a pine forest; and 

 I like to linger where the fresh breeze sings through the tufted 

 pine needles. The crossbills, too, are in their element, when 

 hanging, parrot-like, head downwards, amongst the ripe brown 

 cones, they deftly wrench off scale after scale with their pincer- 

 like mandibles, as they cull the sweet, oil-laden seed which lies 

 hidden at the base of each plate of the cone's armour. It is not 

 my intention here to attempt a description of the almost endless 

 number of conifers which the labours and researches of botanists 

 and explorers have brought to the knowledge of the scientific : 

 I intend rather to endeavour to enlist the reader as a companion 

 in a sort of gossiping ramble amongst some of the most 

 familiar and noteworthy members of the pine family, gathering, 

 as we go, such bits and scraps of pine lore as good fortune may 

 cast in our way. 



It would be difficult to find, even amongst the most beautiful 

 of Nature's forest handiwork, a more graceful, widely-distri- 

 buted, or generally useful tree than the larch (Pinus larix), the 

 cone and foliage of which is represented at Fig. 1. By the 

 Romans this tree was held in high esteem, and the larch 

 forests, from time to time discovered by them, were made ex- 

 tensive use of. During their German wars vast quantities of 

 larch timber were obtained. The trees, after being felled and 

 trimmed in the Alpine fir forests, were sent, vi& the river Po, 

 to Homo, where a great demand existed for larch for building 

 purposes. Pliny, in writing of the larch, says : " This tree is 

 the best of the kind that bears resin. It rots not, but endures 

 a long time ; ' ' and there can be little doubt that the praise thus 

 bestowed by the historian was just. There appears little reason 

 to doubt the truth of the statement which has been made, that 

 the Emperor Trajan's vast floating palace, which was con- 

 structed for him on a lake, as a place of resort during the heats 

 of summer, was almost entirely composed of larch and cypress 

 combined. We read that this extraordinary structure was 

 built of cypress and larch, sheathed with lead, fastened with 

 copper nails, doubly planked, and the seams caulked with linen 

 rags, laid over with Greek pitch. After 1,400 years had passed 

 away, some portions of the submerged palace were removed from 

 the depths of the lake, when the fir timber of the building 

 was found to be in an extraordinarily sound condition. We 

 also find that Tiberius, knowing the remarkably durable 

 qualities of larch timber, caused vast numbers of trees, brought 

 from Rhastia, to be cut into planks, for the purpose of re- 

 building the Naumachiarian bridge, which was originally built 

 by Augustus, but met with destruction by fire. This so- 

 called Rhaetia larch appears to have been of remarkably good 

 quality and luxuriance of growth ; for we find it related that 

 one pole reached 120 feet in length, and was of such perfsct 

 growth that all Rome flocked to examine it. For art purposes 

 larch wood appears to have been held in high esteem from the 

 very earliest periods. Some of the most admirable paintings 

 executed by the masters who flourished between the periods 

 when Pliny wrote and Raphael painted were executed on boards 

 hewn from the substance of the larch ; in fact, the term immor- 

 tale lignum was applied to larch wood, on account of its extra- 

 ordinary powers of resistance to deteriorating influences. Much 

 of the picturesque beauty possessed by that land of fine land- 

 scapes, Switzerland, is more or less dependent on the larch. The 

 wild crag, deep ravine, and brink of the foam-flaked torrent 

 each and all have their larch-plumes to break the monotony of 

 rock scenery. Then, again, the peasants' chalets, perched on 

 some wild ledge, or the frail-looking yet reliable mountain- 

 bridge or chasin-guard rail, which, as though secured by indus- 

 trious spiders of a larger growth, stretch across cliff-tracks and 

 giddy passes, which would be well-nigh impassable, were it not 

 for the light, straight larch-poles which, felled hard by, are 

 made to minister to man's requirements ; and it is most fortu- 

 nate that in the very situation where there is exposure to 

 alternate wet and dry, heat and cold, and the rough buffetings 

 of the tempest, this timber, so admirably calculated to resist 

 decay, should be so abundantly found. Lambert, when speak- 

 ing of the strength of larch wood, expresses himself as follows : 

 " By observations made on the strength of timber, it appears 

 that a beam of larch, clear and free from knota and every other 



imperfection, especially at or near the middle, eleven inches 

 square and six feet and a half long, can bear, if placed horizon- 

 tally on its two extremes, a weight of 200,000 Ibs. suspended to 

 the middle of it, and that it can bear a still greater weight in 

 an oblique position." It was from the adoption of a system of 

 analogical reasoning, that the constructors of the Royal Navy 

 first turned their attention to the use of larch as a wood for 

 ship-building purposes. The first larch-built ship we learn 

 much about was constructed entirely from larch timber, fur- 

 nished for the purpose by the Duke of Athol. This ship was 

 called the Serapis. Then, for experimental purposes, the Sibylle 

 frigate, the bottom of a lighter, and a number of piles for 

 tidal use, were constructed at Woolwich dockyard. Quoting 

 from the history of the experiments, we read that " the 

 Athol, of twenty-eight guns, was built entirely of larch, of the 

 same growth, whilst the Niemen, a ship constructed at the same 

 time, was built of timber from Riga. At the expiration of 

 their first course of service, both vessels were officially 

 examined, when the Niemen was found so much decayed as to 

 be condemned forthwith. The Athol was re-commissioned, com- 

 pleted her second term of service, provisioned, and made a 

 store-ship of, when for a period of more than thirty years she 

 was subjected to the wear and tear of almost every climate." 

 It is somewhat curious, and not generally well known, that 

 the larch, although so commonly met with throughout the 

 length and breadth of Great Britain, is not one of our indi- 

 genous trees. We find that in the year 1629 Parkinson, in 

 speaking of trees of this kind, refers to them as rarities, or out 

 of the common order of trees. Evelyn, too, although perhaps 

 possessed of more information regarding trees than any 

 person who wrote in his time (1664), describes a larch tree of 

 goodly stature, which grew at Chelmsford in Essex, and speaks 

 of it as though he considered it a rare tree. Ben Jonson speaks 

 of the juice of the larch as possessing some mystic virtues, but 

 gives no information as to whether the tree yielding this sap 

 was rare or not. Thus he writes : 



" Yes, I have brought to help your vows 

 Horned poppy, cypress boughs, 

 The fig-tree wild, that grows on tombs, 

 And juice that from the larch-tree comes." 



It would be difficult to over-estimate the importance to be 

 attached to the cultivation of this valuable tree in situations 

 where little else could be grown. The Athol family have 

 been celebrated for their zeal in the cause of larch growth. 

 The extent to which their fir-tree cultivation has been carried 

 on in Scotland will be best shown by a reference to the 

 following statistics : 14,096,719 young larch trees were 

 planted in the neighbourhood of Blair Athol ar.d Dunkeld. 

 The plantation covered a track of land 10,324 imperial acres in 

 extent. The trees flourished and grew rapidly, and on felling 

 one, at the ninety-fifth year of its growth, it was found to be 

 100 feet long, 10 feet 6| inches in girth, at five feet from the 

 point at which it was cut through. It contained 368 cubic 

 feet of timber. It has been truly said that the man who plants 

 good trees abundantly stores up wealth for those who follow. An 

 approximate calculation has been made as to the money value 

 of the vast fir forests thus raised by one man's strong will and 

 industry, and the sum arrived at is .6,500,000. In addition, 

 to this princely sum we must estimate the thinnings and trim- 

 mings as being worth about 7 per acre of forest. At the 

 death of this noble pine-tree planter, a coffin was constructed 

 from the wood of one of his forest favourites, which, on being 

 felled, measured 106 feet in length. 



Most of our readers will be familiar with a substance known 

 as Venice turpentine, and sold by all druggists for a variety of 

 medicinal and art purposes. This substance, although bearing 

 the name of Venice turpentine, is not brought from Venice, but 

 is simply the hardened sap of the larch. Considerable quan- 

 tities are obtained in France, the Brianconnais being celebrated 

 for the production of turpentine, which is obtained by tapping 

 or perforating the trees with large augers. The first hole bored 

 is commonly at about three feet above the ground-surface. 

 Other holes, or outlets, are then made in the tree-trunk to a 

 height of twelve or thirteen feet. A number of small wooden 

 tubes, or spouts, are so cut as to fit these holes, just as a tap 

 fits a barrel, and as the liquid resinous juice of the tree flows 

 outwards through the spouts, it drips into a corresponding 



