THE LARCH 143 



monotonous in plantations. Still, the indictment 

 drawn up by Wordsworth, in his " Description of the 

 Scenery of the Lakes," is severe. " It must be 

 acknowledged," he says, " that the Larch, till it has 

 outgrown the size of a shrub, shows, when looked at 

 singly, some elegance in form and appearance, es- 

 pecially in spring, decorated as it then is by the pink 

 tassels of its blossoms ; but, as a tree, it is less than 

 any other pleasing. Its branches (for boughs it has 

 none) have no variety in the youth of the tree, and 

 little dignity even when it attains its full growth. 

 Leaves it cannot be said to have ; and, consequently, 

 it affords neither shade nor shelter. In spring, the 

 Larch becomes green long before the native trees ; and 

 its green is so peculiar and vivid, that, finding nothing 

 to harmonise with it, wherever it comes forth a disa- 

 greeable spot is produced. In summer, when all other 

 trees are in their pride, it is of a dingy, lifeless hue ; 

 in autumn, of a spiritless, unvaried yellow ; and, in 

 winter, it is still more lamentably distinguished 

 from every other deciduous tree of the forest ; for 

 they seem only to sleep, but the Larch appears 

 absoltely dead." 



Wordsworth's want of appreciation of this species 

 may have been partly due to its unfamiliarity to his 

 childhood, and but few of his objections would apply 

 to the Larch as it appears in its native mountains 

 as, for instance, in the Tyrol where the trees often 

 stand apart, but with no other species to contrast 

 with them, inclined at every angle, and often damaged 

 by storm or avalanche, so as to show no absolute 

 geometrical regularity of outline. To other tastes, 



