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THE LARCH. 



GENERAL REMARKS. 



UST as the oak, with its powers of stubborn resistance to 

 the elements, may be taken as an emblem of the strength 

 of intiexible will, so the larch typifies strength of another 

 kind, the strength of perfect adaptability. Its long, 

 flexible boughs bend before the onslaught of the winds ; but, unimpeded 

 by any heavy mass of foliage, they are not broken. Its slender, un- 

 divided stem sways from side to side, but bound to the earth as it 

 is by numberless small rootlets, spreading themselves even beyond the 

 radius of the branches, it stands in the most exposed positions with 

 far more assurance of safety than sturdier trees, in places, indeed, quite 

 untenable by any other species. 



The Larch is a good example of regular growth in a tree. The 

 round and tapering stem rises from the ground in a single vertical 

 line ; from it, at short intervals, radiate tiers of branches, the lower 

 ones pendent, the higher ones inclined upward. From base to summit 

 these tiers are graduated in size, and diminish with perfect regularity. 

 From the boughs droop the flexible branches which support a fringe 

 of hanging twigs. These twigs are tufted with upright cones and 

 branches of soft, fresh green leaves. The tree has thus a conical 

 outline, filled in with a tracery of most dainty and intricate design. 

 Go into a Larch wood on a day of early spring if you would 

 see it at its most magical moment. The more distant trees, seen 

 perhaps against a background of soft gray sky, seem veiled in a haze of 



