TREES OF AMERICA. 249 



had been built more than sixty years, they were 

 perfectly sound. Its most general use, how- 

 ever, is for fencing ; the posts last thirty-five 

 or forty years, and the rails fifty or sixty. 

 But even this is nothing to the durability 

 of the cedars of Lebanon, enormous trees 

 that grow in Asia, the wood of which is said 

 to endure for hundreds of years." 



" Uncle Philip, I have read about the cedars 

 of Lebanon in the Bible ; was not Solomon's 

 temple built of them?" 



" Yes, partly. They must have been very 

 plentiful in Solomon's time, but now they are 

 scarce. 



" There is yet one more tree that I must 

 tell you of, and then we shall have gone 

 through with the North American forests. It 

 is very similar to the spruces in many par- 

 ticulars, but a distinct name is given to it ; 

 this name is larch : in the northern parts of 

 the United States it is commonly called hack- 

 matack, but larch is the most correct. It is 

 found in Maine and Vermont, but it is most 

 common still farther north, in Canada and 

 Nova Scotia. In the Middle States it is 

 scarcely ever seen. It is a noble tree to look 

 upon, with a straight slender trunk, nearly a 



