2356 



ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. 



PART III. 



2261 



80 ft. high, and 15 ft. in circumference above the roots, and which is called 

 the Tall Larch. A larch at Kippenross, near Dumblane, in Stirlingshire, 

 was measured by Mr. Blackadder ^ 



in 1817, and again in 1832; when 

 it was found to be 15 ft. higher than 

 it was in 18 17, and to contain 50 ad- 

 ditional cubic feet of timber. 



Geography. The European larch 

 grows on the Alps of France and 

 Switzerland, on the Apennines in 

 Italy; on the mountains of Germany, 

 principally in the Tyrol ; in Hungary, 

 and in different parts of the south of 

 Russia. On the Alps, it is found 

 at the elevation of 5000 ft., and on 

 the Carpathian Mountains at that 

 of 3000 ft. It is not found on the 

 Pyrenees ; nor in Spain, Sweden, 

 Norway, or Britain. According to 

 Hoss and Willdenow, it is found 

 of the largest size in loamy soil, 

 formed from the debris of granitic 

 or slaty rocks ; but it is also found of 

 large size in calcareous soil ; where 

 the surface is kept cool by moisture. 

 In ascending the Simplon from the 

 Italian side, a part of the road passes 

 through a larch forest, in which there were some immense trees in 1819, 

 growing on the steep sides of the mountains; and in Mr. Brockedon's grand 

 and picturesque views of the Tyrol, from which figs. 2263. and 2264-. are copied, 

 the larch is, in all elevated and rocky situations, the prevailing tree- 



History. The larch does not seem to have been known to the Greeks, as 

 it is not mentioned by Theophrastus, or any Greek writer on plants, unless it 

 be, as some suppose, the Greek pitus, though this does not appear pro- 



2262 



