208 THE LARCH. 
the climate of Scotland. He nursed his plants in hothouses 
and a greenhouse, sheltered from the cold, till they all died 
except the three alluded to. These, in desperation, he planted 
in the warmest and best sheltered part of his garden, where 
they attained an extraordinary height and girth.” 
An account published in the Transactions of the Highland 
Society, under the authority of the late Duke of Atholl’s 
trustees, states that the first larches at that place were brought 
from London by Mr. Menzies of Migeny, in 1738 ; that five 
small plants were left at Dunkeld, and eleven at Blair in 
Atholl, as presents to the Duke of Atholl. The five were 
planted in the lawn at Dunkeld, in alluvial gravelly soil, 
abounding with round stones, in a sheltered situation, ele- 
vated forty feet above the Tay, and 130 above the level 
of the sea. Three of the five were cut down, two of which 
were felled in 1809, of which one measured 147 cubical 
feet, and the other 168 cubical feet. The last-mentioned 
was sold on the spot to a shipbuilding company in Leith 
for 3s. a foot, or £25, 4s. the tree. The other two larches 
are of immense size, and continue to grow on the lawn 
at Dunkeld. The popular account, that the trees at Dun- 
keld were the first larches introduced into Scotland, and 
that they were imported from Italy with other exotics, and 
nursed in a hothouse, does not appear to be correct ; but as 
the trees at Dunkeld are now among the oldest and largest in 
the country, it is by no means surprising that, in the absence 
of the first imported trees, the tradition respecting their treat- 
ment should be engrafted on the celebrated tree on the banks 
of the Tay at Dunkeld. 
Of the larches planted at Blair, one, 106 feet high, was cut 
down, from which the coffin was made of the celebrated Duke 
of Atholl who planted the tree so extensively. Between the 
years 1730 and 1740, the larch plants were in request by 
many of the Scottish landowners, who planted them to a 
small extent, and generally ruined them by inserting them in 
soil too rich and cultivated for their future success. Fre- 
quently, too, the mistake occurred of inserting the plants too 
