506 CONIFERS. 



twenty-five years, begins afterwards to rot at the heart, 

 and, if allowed to stand for any length of time after this 

 has commenced, becomes unfitted for general use. Such 

 we have found to be the case in our own neighbourhood 

 upon moory soil, with a strong iron till or moorband be- 

 neath, and also in parts where the recent sand-stone rocks 

 prevail. In many parts of Scotland the same takes place 

 upon richer soils, derived from easily decomposed trap. 

 In Dumfriesshire, wherever the red sand-stone appears, the 

 Larch soon becomes tainted with heart-rot, while that 

 grown upon the adjoining grauwacke is sound, and of good 

 quality. " In the vale of Annan,"" Sir William Jardine 

 remarks, " whenever the sloping banks have a substratum 

 of this rock, (viz., red sand-stone,) or one composed of red 

 sand-stone gravel, the outward decay of the tree is visible 

 at from fifteen to twenty-five years of age. ,, Mr. Mat- 

 thew, in his " Treatise on Naval Timber, 1 ' and who to 

 practical adds scientific knowledge, when treating of the 

 Larch, divides soils and subsoils into two classes ; the first, 

 in which the Larch will acquire a size of from thirty to 

 three hundred solid feet, the second, where it only reaches 

 from six to twenty solid feet, and in most cases becomes 

 tainted with rot before thirty years old. As our own ex- 

 perience has shown us the general correctness of his views, 

 we make no apology for quoting the heads of his ob- 

 servations on this interesting subject. Of his classes of 

 soils and subsoils proper for the Larch, the first is " sound 

 rock with a covering of firm loam, particularly when the 

 rock is jagged, or cloven, or much disrupted, and mixed 

 with the earth ;™ this applies more particularly to the 

 Highland districts, where the primitive rocks prevail, and 

 which we have already shown to be most congenial and 

 natural to the Larch. The second, " gravel not too fer- 



