JUNE. 



269 



that any one should have misunderstood me. Those persons 

 Avho were present, I doubt not, received my meaning correctly. 



There are inducements enough to fruit culture without 

 spreading before people delusive hopes of such returns as 

 these, whose very magnificence is a sufficient guaranty of 

 their falsity. — Yours respectfully, H. E. Hooker, Rochester , 

 March 20th, 1856. 



Nothing in the report would lead one to doubt the serious- 

 ness of Mr. Hooker's remarks, and, knowing his cautiousness 

 in matters of this kind, his remarks attracted our attention, 

 and led us to notice them. We should have expected such 

 statements from some inexperienced and over-enthusiastic 

 beginners in fruit culture, but from one who knows the ex- 

 pense of cultivation as well as the true market value of fruit, 

 we thought Mr. Hooker had been suddenly seized with a 

 fruit mania, and promised results which could never be real- 

 ized. 



THE AMERICAN AND EUROPEAN LARCHES. 



BY WILSON FLAGG. 



The larch is a well-known tree, differing from the pines 

 and firs in the deciduous character of its foliage, which grows 

 in bundles or fascicles, containing a great number of leaves. 

 In general appearance, if its leaves were evergreen it would 

 not greatly differ from the firs, as it is a resinous tree, sends 

 out its branches horizontally from a single shaft, and bears its 

 fruit in cones. This tree is commonly known, in this coun- 

 try, as the hacmatack — a name given to it by the aborigines. 

 In favorable situations it often attains the height of sixty feet, 

 though it is familiar to us only as a small tree, twenty or 

 thirty feet in height. The branches of this species are very 

 numerous, quite irregularly disposed, at right angles with the 

 stem, and tapering into very slender terminations, like those 

 of the hemlock. Hence this tree has no inconsiderable share 

 of elegance in its spray, when divested of its leaves. 



The American and European larches do not differ very 



