no TREES IN NATURE, MYTH & ART 



for him to have become familiar with it. 

 " That which grows somewhere about Chelms- 

 ford in Essex," he says, "does sufficiently re- 

 proach our negligence and want of industry." 

 It must indeed have sorely grieved the econo- 

 mic side of Evelyn that a tree, of which he had 

 read of beams 1 20 feet in length being made, 

 should through lack of industry not be grown 

 in England. Its wood, however, does not 

 harden as well in our mild, moist climate, as 

 in countries where the winters are more severe. 

 Still, it develops well enough to be of great use, 

 and vast numbers of larches have been planted 

 since Evelyn's time, particularly in Scotland. 



It is an Alpine tree, and looks and is most 

 at home among the mountains and the hills. 

 Like the Scots pine it strikes a wild note in 

 the average lowland landscape. An aged, 

 ragged specimen, in the roadside hedgerow, 

 near to my house, looks like a tramp resting on 

 a journey to or from the North. One almost 

 expects to hear it ask for a bawbee. 



Though the larch is bare of leaves in winter, 

 a larch- wood, at that time, looks very beautiful 

 when the sun shines through its maze of grey- 

 brown twigs and branches, In spring, it puts 



