220 THE LARCHES 



It is light-demanding, and in the forest is surmounted 

 by a narrow, sharply pyramidal crown, but in the open the 

 crown frequently becomes broken and irregular. Crowding 

 results in killing off its lower limbs in early life, giving a 

 smooth, clean stem, free of large knots. In swamps it devel- 

 ops fine, strong, and very long fibrous roots. The Indians 

 used these to sew together the birch bark strips of their 

 canoes, for which purpose it served admirably. The red man 

 called the tree " Hackmatack," a name by which it is known 

 in many places. While it is strictly a conifer, it is not an 

 evergreen, as it sheds all of its leaves in early fall. The 

 leaves are bright green until late summer, when they turn 

 a pale yellow. It is not a very frequent nor an abundant 

 seed-bearer. The little cones are usually about three fourths 

 of an inch long and fall the second year. The seed matures 

 the first year and is scarcely an eighth of an inch long, 

 with a wing fully three times its length. The wood is heavy 

 for what is really a softwood conifer, hard, strong, and very 

 durable when exposed, or in contact with the soil. The heart- 

 wood is light brown in color, with lighter colored sapwood. 

 Its annual rings are fairly distinct, but there is not much 

 difference between spring and summer wood. It is used 

 mainly for railroad ties, telegraph and telephone poles, 

 fence posts, and other purposes where durable timber in 

 contact with the ground is required. The " instep bend " 

 of the larger roots is much used in light boat-building. 



Growing plants in the nursery and transplanting them 

 into such situations as their nature demands would undoubt- 

 edly be successful, but to plant them on low elevations or 

 in dry ground in its southern range would not be likely to 

 bring forth satisfactory results. Commercial nurserymen 

 have no difficulty in growing them for ornamental purposes, 

 but if reasonable care should be taken, natural reforesta- 

 tion would occur on ground where other and more valuable 

 trees will not flourish. Gathering and planting seeds could 

 fill in vacant places in swamps, and as the wood is valuable 

 for many purposes such a course might be advantageous. 



