292 THE LARCH. 



gold, which is the first ti)i<.cii ot the budding twigs ; upim those 

 nearer M hand vou can learn the detail of this drapery ot green and 

 vcUow, or perceive the waxen tiowers, glowing in pink and crimson, 

 while the purple-tinted boughs ot Alders or Birches hard by are still 

 bare. There is no such stillness as the silence in a wood of Larches. 

 No bird-songs, no stirring in the springy bed ot narrow needle-like 

 leaves on which vou tread : the eye undistracted tollows the long vista 

 of parallel stems, tar and tarther, into a mazy distance, with perhaps 

 at the verge a point of sky very taintly seen. 



In the general structure ot its wood, root, flowers and cones, the 

 Larch closely resembles other members of the conifer tribe, while 

 stem, bark and ramification, though they show some points of dif- 

 ference, unmistakeably proclaim the family to which it belongs. In 

 some tew characteristics, few but important, the tree stands by itself 

 The leaves are soft in texture and tall at the close of the season, 

 while those ot the Pines are stiff and remain on the tree for several 

 years. On the Pines and Firs, which are evergreen, the old dark 

 foliage becomes more or less gluacous as the seasons pass, while a 

 tew voung leaves ot a paler green grouped here and there are the 

 onlv traces ot renewal. C)n the other hand, the bare winter boughs 

 of the Larch are clothed afresh each \ ear with tlie bright green 

 garment of spring, and later with the dull-green and gold of the 

 advancing years. 



THE TRUNK AND BRANCHES. 



I he trunk is upright, undivided, and small in diameter considering 



its height, which, in a tully-grown tree, reaches eighty or ninety 



feet. The trunk appears to taper more gradually than in other 



deciduous trees, where the stages ot growth may generally be traced 



