THE COMMON LARCH. 



487 



the above are now by no means rare, either in Scotland 

 or in parts of England, though the introduction of the 

 species took place not much more than a century ago. 



At Dunkeld, two of the original trees introduced from 

 the continent, which are still in a thriving and healthy 

 state, as well as many of their progeny, both around 

 Dunkeld and at Blair Athol, are of these proportions. 

 Such are those also at Dalwick, in Peebleshire, the seat 

 of Sir J. M. Nasmyth, Bart., which are said to have been 

 planted in 1725, and if so, must be considered the oldest 

 Larches in Scotland, portraits of two of which, viz., the 

 crooked and the tall Larch, are given in Loudon's " Arbo- 

 retum.'" At Monzie, in Ar- 

 gyleshire, also, the Larches 

 planted in 1738 are well known 

 for their great size and height, 

 and the amount of cubical tim- 

 ber they contain, and, indeed, 

 upon almost all properties of 

 any extent, Larches are now 

 to be met with of large and 

 valuable dimensions. The 

 Larch, unlike the Spruce and 

 Silver Firs, whose increase for 

 the first seven or eight years 

 is very slow, is of rapid growth, 

 even from an early age, and 

 in favourable situations it usu- 

 ally attains a height of from 

 fifteen to twenty feet within twelve years from the seed, 

 and at fifty years old is often eighty feet high. At Twizell, 

 growing upon a calcareous soil, and in the favourable loca- 

 lity of a deep dene, there are several Larches, not forty-five 



