FOREST TREES. 33 



" The American Larch, known very generally in New England 

 by the aboriginal name of Hackmatack, is sometimes known to 

 attain an elevation of seventy feet, but does not usually exceed 

 forty or fifty feet." It has crowded tufts of leaves, not unlike 

 those of the Spruce or Pine, much shorter than those of the latter, 

 and more slender and graceful than those of the former, and of 

 lighter green, so disposed on the ends of the branches as to make 

 the foliage of the tree the lightest of all the forest trees, espe- 

 cially when compared with the great strength of the tree itself. 

 " Late in autumn they turn to a soft, leather-yellow color, and in 

 the first days of November fall." " It has a straight, erect, rap- 

 idly-tapering trunk, clothed with a bluish-gray bark, rather rough, 

 with small roundish scales." The branches are numerous, and 

 most firmly attached to the stem, shooting out at apparently meas- 

 ured distances from each other, generally in a horizontal posi- 

 tion, which makes its ascent quite as convenient as a ladder ; and, 

 as it grows mostly on open or meadow land, it is often climbed 

 by timber-hunters, afibrding a good prospect of the forest on the 

 opposite side of the meadow or intervales. 



The wood of the Hackmatack is distinguished by the following 

 qualities : " Close-grained, compact, of reddish color, remarkable 

 for its great weight, strength, and durability," the latter even 

 being greater than the Oak. " On these accounts it is preferred 

 before all other woods for knees, beams, and top timbers in ship- 

 building." 



The Larch is extensively cultivated in Europe, particularly in 

 Scotland. Though in America it is most generally found in low 

 meadow land, where is depth of soil and plenty of moisture, it 

 has nevertheless " the property of flourishing on surfaces almost 

 without soil, thickly strewn with fragments of rocks, on the high, 

 bleak sides and tops of hills, where vegetation scarcely exists." 



The following account of the experiments made by the Dukes 

 of Athol, on the Highlands of Scotland, is so encouraging and 

 B 2 



