LARCH. TAMARACK. 



(Larix.) 



Larch was well known in the olden time, and was prized in 

 Europe and the Orient. The two principal American species 

 are also called tamarack and hackmatack. The Eastern larch 

 or tamarack (L. americana] prefers peculiar low, wet areas 

 known as tamarack swamps. The Western tree (L. occiden- 

 tals) resembles the European species and prefers dry places. 

 Although trees can exist in very wet swamps they do not do as 

 well as where moisture conditions are less excessive. A tree 

 required forty- eight years to reach a diameter of two inches 

 under the first condition, while another tree was eleven inches 

 thick at the end of thirty-eight years, where there was less water. 



Larch wood has always been regarded as very durable. It 

 is noted by Pliny and other ancient authors.* Vitruvius 

 mentions a bridge that, having burned, was replaced by one 

 of larch, because that wood would not burn as readily.t The 

 foundation-piles of Venice are said to be of larch .\ It should 

 be remembered that the identities of ancient woods are not 

 always beyond question. American larch resembles, if it does 

 not equal, true foreign wood. The trees are tall and straight, 

 but so slender as to be seldom cut into lumber, almost the 

 entire supply being demanded for posts, ties, and poles. The 

 exceedingly durable wood resembles spruce in structure, and 

 hard pine in weight and appearance. 



Larch trees are marked by the fact that their foliage is 

 deciduous. The little leaves, gathered in tufts or bundles, are 

 of a bright pea-green when fresh in the springtime. The 

 appearance of tamarack trees when divested of foliage in the 

 winter is very gloomy. All larch trees tolerate less water than 

 occurs in most larch swamps. Trees are vigorous growers. 

 The genus deserves more attention. Larix is from a Celtic 

 word Lar, meaning fat. 



* Pliny, XVI, 43-49 and XVI, 30. f Vitruvius, II, 9. 



t Encyclopaedia Britannica, Vol. XIV, p. 310. Also Forestry in Minn , Green. 



170 



