STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER 



of a dingy, lifeless hue ; in autumn of a spiritless, 

 unvaried yellow, and in winter it is still more 

 lamentably distinguished from every other de- 

 ciduous tree of the forest, for they seem only to 

 sleep, but the larch appears absolutely dead." 



Many old stories are in existence concerning 

 the durability and incombustibility of the wood 

 of this tree. It is said that Julius Caesar wished 

 to set fire to a wooden tower before the gates of 

 a castle, in the Alps, which he was besieging; 

 that he heaped up logs of larch wood around 

 it, but was utterly unable to make them burn, 

 " robusta larix igni impenetrabile lignum" 

 Evelyn, one of the first English writers on trees, 

 gives an account of a ship made of larch wood 

 and cypress which was found in the Numidian 

 Sea, twelve fathoms under water, and which, 

 though it had lain fourteen hundred years sub- 

 merged, was yet quite hard and sound. 



Exaggerated as these accounts may seem, 

 the fact remains that the wood is extremely 

 valuable, and what the larch lacks in grace and 

 beauty as an ornamental tree it makes up in 

 its merits as a useful one. Thus even among 

 trees there is a just law of compensation. 



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