304 THE LARCH. 



Larch cones bear on the under side of each of the scales of which 

 thev are composed little bracts. Tliese in some cases become enlarged 

 and transformed into leaves. 



THE LARCH (Larix Europoea). 



The Larch grows rapidly, and reaches its tull height (about 

 eighty feet) in fifty years. It requires a considerable quantity of 

 moisture, but does not thrive in the neighbourhood of stagnant water. 

 The trees appear to have been brought to Scotland about 1629. 

 Thev are lovers of light and air, and do well in exposed positions 

 as a rule, though they are apt to become stunted and deformed it 

 subjected to a prevailing wind from one quarter. Lightning rarely 

 strikes them, and thev can withstand a strong wind, so that, from a 

 pictorial point of view, an uprooted Larch is suggestive of some 

 great torce ot tempest. 



EFFECT OF WIND. 



Sometime- an old Larch that is growing near the sea coast, or 

 in other places where it is exposed to a prevailing wind from one 

 quarter, becomes permanently bent and contorted, and loses all its 

 characteristics before it will give up the contest. The branches that 

 should spread from the upright stem to all quarters, now, with one 

 accord, strain to leeward ; the hranchlets that should hang free lie 

 close to the branches in tangled tufts, hugging them on the weather 

 side ; only their tips escape the tangle, ami thev too, trcml in the 

 same line with the horizon and are pendent no longei'. Kvcn the 

 upper part of the trunk is forced over and wrapt aroumi by the 

 smaller growth. The effect is that ot a tree seen in the midst of a 

 tempest and straining to breaking point ; a stationary record of 

 apparent movement such as an instantaneous photograph gives, curiously 

 out of place in calm weather, and without the blurred and wavering 

 outline of a moving form. 



