THE LARCH. 211 
supply early in the present century, and before the Con- 
tinental larch seed became an article of commerce. 
Since the larch has become a cultivated tree on the Con- 
tinent in very warm situations, the imported seeds are found 
to become more and more tender; for seed collectors, finding 
an ample supply at their doors, are not likely, with the great 
competition in the trade, to ascend the rugged heights where 
the tree is more hardy and indigenous for a supply of cones, 
and for many years Continental seed has formed the chief 
supply of the British nurseries, yielding not less than twenty 
millions of plants yearly ; and during the unfavourable seasons 
since 1860 for the produce of Scotch larch seed, the plants 
raised from Continental seed must have amounted yearly to a 
much greater number. 
In appearance the larch is an elegant object, of a beautiful 
conical form, and in favourable situations it is of the utmost 
regularity of figure at every stage of its growth. Its trunk 
is straight, and if allowed proper space it becomes massive. 
It produces a great number of branches, commonly horizontal, 
and when old of a graceful pendant figure, aspiring somewhat 
toward the extremities, with branchlets which proceed from 
the main shoot of the branch, of a drooping habit of growth, 
The leaves, which are of a lively grassy green, are produced 
in the form of bundles, except on the young shoots, where they 
stand individually. The tree yields its male and female 
flowers in April and May, and arrayed in its summer’s dress 
it forms a very graceful and engaging object. The common 
larch is the only tree of the genus that is worthy of cultiva- 
tion for timber ; compared to it all the other species appear 
feeble and ungainly, and how interesting soever they may 
appear in collections, from the peculiarities and habits of their 
growth, they are, in point of ornament, inferior to the common 
tree. It consists of many slight varieties, of which some yield 
red, and some white, blossoms or female catkins. The former 
are the more common in Scotland. Trees are also frequently 
met with of a delicate pink blossom, and of all the inter- 
mediate shades between the red and white. The unripe 
