81 



can be grown with a long clean stem, 

 with less trouble ; nor any that thrives 

 better with a very small head. Com- 

 pared with English Firs, it has, in both 

 respects, greatly the advantage. 



Secondly, It is more durable; for though 

 it produces dead knots when neglected, 

 still it produces no rotten ones, or what 

 Carpenters call Cork Knots. The fact is, 

 that not only the heart and sap of the 

 wood, but even the bark is of so durable 

 a nature, that we know no means of es- 

 timating when any one of them will de- 

 cay ; except under some species of mis- 

 management. 



There is a particular criterion by which 

 Larch is distinguishable from any other 

 wood ; which is, at the same time, a 

 decisive proof of its durability. — The 

 dead knots, or branches, wood and bark, 

 being always found fast wedged as it 



