I 4 o BRITISH FOREST TREES 



its best development, and often forms pure forests. In 

 the other portions of the Alps it occurs in admixture, 

 mostly in groups and clumps, with the beech, spruce, and 

 Cembran pine, at the different elevations above sea-level 

 corresponding to the habitat of these species. It was 

 introduced into England early in the seventeenth century 

 (1629), into the lowlands of Scotland in 1725 by Nasmyth 

 of Posso, and into the highlands by the Duke of Athole 

 in 1727. The larch has been extensively cultivated in 

 Scotland (twenty- seven millions are said to have been 

 planted out in the highlands between 1738 and 1820), 

 and in northern Germany. Removed thus far away 

 from its true home, and subjected to climatic conditions 

 differing from those that obtain there, its development 

 has often been unsatisfactory and disappointing ; its growth 

 is in many parts marked by a sabre-like, curved stem in 

 place of a straight bole, and also too frequently by an 

 unnatural robe of hanging mosses (varieties of Usned), 

 and by cankerous fungoid disease (Peziza Willkommii), 

 whilst the foliage is liable to be attacked by the larch- 

 moth (Coleophora laricella). 



Tree-form and Root-system. Like the spruce and the 

 silver fir, the larch develops a long, straight stem whose 

 growth in height is of long-continued duration, as in the 

 former especially. Where indigenous, it is characterised 

 by straightness of growth, and attains, in close canopy, a 

 good bole approaching the cylindrical form, and yielding 

 good, long squares and beams. At lower elevations, where 

 its growth is stimulated to too quick a rate in youth, or on 

 stony soil, the formation of the lower portion of the stem 

 is apt to be curved like a sabre. The pointed conical 

 crown of sparse deciduous foliage is borne by slight branches, 

 which do not form whorls round the axis as in the case of 

 the other coniferous species ; it retains its conical shape 



