404 



THE LARCH. 



stem, pyramidal form, and tiers of drooping branches still 

 bearing the cones formed during the preceding summer, 

 decisively attest its relationship with the Firs ; and the 

 absence of leaves at once distinguishes it from any other 

 of that tribe with which we are familiar. There is, how- 

 ever, no difficulty in detecting it, no matter what may be 

 its associates, when in full foliage. 

 A favourable specimen of the Larch 

 may be described as an erect tree, 

 of a pyramidal form, clothed with 

 long slender branches from its 

 pointed summit almost to the 

 ground, the lower ones being more 

 or less pendulous, as also is the 

 spray throughout. The leaves are 

 bright green, growing in tufts, of a 

 soft texture, spreading, and slightly 

 recurved. The cones, which are 

 small, are numerous, and arranged 

 along the twigs in rows more or 

 less regular. In their young state 

 they vary in colour from greenish 

 white to bright red, and when ripe 

 are brown, being formed of overlap- 

 ping scales, which are not united 

 into a compact woody mass, but are 

 detached at the edges. 



Though it possesses little claim to 

 picturesque beauty, at least, in its 

 British garb, " it must be acknow- 

 ledged," says Wordsworth, " that 

 the Larch, till it has outgrown 



the size of a shrub, shows, when looked at singly, some 

 elegance in form and appearance, especially 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 



TWIG OF LARCH. 



