LARIX EUROPE A. 393 



The natural geographical limits of the European Larch are now 

 difficult to determine, as so much has been done for its artificial 

 distribution. It is, however, essentially an alpine tree, and is found 

 wild on the Alps from Dauphine to the Tyrol, on the Carpathians, 

 and on the mountains of Bohemia and Moravia. In some places 

 it forms pure forests, of which the most extensive are on the Alps 

 of Dauphine ; in others it is often mixed with the Spruce Fir, the 

 Silver ^Fir, or the Cembra Pine, and at its highest vertical limit,, 

 with the dwarf Mountain Pine, Finns montana. Its vertical range 

 varies with the latitude of the locality ; on the central Alps of 

 Switzerland it ascends to 6,000 7,000 feet above the level of the 

 sea ; on the Carpathian and Bohemian mountains it reaches the 

 highest limit of arborescent vegetation, the altitude of which is 

 considerably less than that reached by the Larch on the Alps. 



The common Larch was introduced into Great Britain at an early date. 

 According to London the earliest mention is made of it in Parkinson's 

 "Paradisus" published in 1629, but at that period it was quite rare; a 

 century later Miller states in the first edition of his " Dictionary of 

 Gardening" (1737) that it was common in most English gardens. 

 During the latter half of the eighteenth century its value as a timber 

 tree became known, and public attention was called to it by the Society 

 of Arts by offering, in 1788, three gold medals for the planting of Larch 

 and the making known the most useful properties of its timber. From 

 that epoch the Larch became the subject more for forestry and economic 

 planting than for arboriculture in its decorative aspect. Into the forestial 

 management and uses of the Larch it is not our province to enter, but 

 mention must be made of those remarkable plantations around Dunkeld 

 and on other portions of the Atholl estate on account of the historical 

 interest attached to them, and the beneficial influence they have exercised 

 on the extension and practice of forestry in Great Britain.* 



The Larch plantations at Dunkeld originated with James, second Duke 

 of Atholl, who planted three hundred and fifty Larches between 1740 and 

 1750, which were probably intended as a trial. Nine years later a still 

 larger number was planted on the face of a rocky hill imsuited for 

 agricultural operations, and this plantation throve in so satisfactory, a 

 manner that his son, the third Duke, was induced to continue the trials, 

 and at the time of his death four hundred and ten acres, previously 

 given up to unproductive broom furze and juniper, were covered with 

 thriving Larch trees. In 1774, John the fourth Duke surnamed "The 

 Planter" succeeded to the title and estates, and under his direction the 

 Atholl Larch plantations became the most famous in the country. 

 During his tenure of the estate, Duke John caused over fifteen thousand 

 acres of practically waste land to be planted principally with Larch 

 trees, of which over twenty-seven millions of plants were used.f. 



Thousands of these trees have since been felled for profitable use, but 

 thousands still remain to attest the forethought and wisdom of the 



* The author had the privilege of inspecting a portion of these magnificent plantations 

 in the summer of 1896 through the kindness and under the guidance of Mr. David Keir, 

 Forester to the Duke of Atholl. 



f Hunter, Woods, Forests and Estates of Perthshire, p. 45. 



