190 FOREST TREES. 
the two kinds, and can only be avoided by purchasing 
of those who can be depended upon. 
2. Larix EHuropea—European Larch. 
Leaves, fascicled, linear, soft, one inch long; 
branches, horizontal, with drooping branchlets; 
cones, ovate-oblong, one to one and one-quarter inch 
long, erect; scales, orbicular, reflexed at the margin. 
The European Larch rises to the height of from 
eighty to one hundred feet, and even more, with a 
proportionate diameter. It is a native of the Alps of 
France and Switzerland, of the Tyrol, of the Carpa- 
thian Mountains, of the Appennines of Italy, and of 
some places in the south of Russia. It was intro- 
duced into England before 1629, but was then spoken 
of as very rare. A century later it was mentioned by 
Miller as “pretty common in English gardens.” 
About one hundred years since, the Duke of Athol 
commenced planting it as a forest tree; and for many 
years past it has been more extensively cultivated in 
Great Britain than all other timber trees combined. 
Ample experience has demonstrated its superior value. 
Loudon devotes fifty pages of his Arboretum to this 
species alone. As it has been hitherto but little cul- 
tivated in America, the testimony in regard to its 
excellencies is entirely foreign, but there appears to 
be no reason to suppose that it will prove less valu- 
able here than in Europe. 
The European Larch appears to combine the qual- 
ities of rapidity of growth, symmetry of form, dura- 
bility of wood, and adaptability to a variety of uses, 
