THE LARCH. 217 
plants more frequently occurs from a want of seed, occasioned 
by the late frosts in spring destroying the blossoms. 
The growth of every kind of plant is interrupted to some 
extent by being transplanted, but no kind will undergo the 
operation more successfully or take to the ground more readily 
than a healthy larch, provided it is not of an age beyond that 
recommended. It flourishes in soils of very opposite qualities, 
from the dry and sandy to that which is wet and clayey ; but 
in the presence of springs or moisture in the soil, it is abso- 
lutely necessary that the water have a free exit. Although 
frequently fine specimens of the tree are to be met with on 
flats of sandy loam or clayey gravel, and on various other 
qualities of soil, yet it is on the declivities, along the slopes of 
ravines, on the shattered débris, and the disturbed soil of 
the landslip or avalanche, that the tree is found to luxuriate 
in its greatest vigour. In stagnant moisture, or on a sub- 
stratum of till, or ferruginous gravel, it becomes stunted and 
full of disease. But a ready discharge of moisture in the soil 
must always be accompanied with a free circulation of the 
atmosphere. It affects a cool and elevated situation, with a 
cloudless sky ; therefore in all low and sheltered situations 
the tree should have sufficient space for the full development 
of its foliage. 
On the Alps and Apennines it luxuriates at a great height, 
and some scattered specimens of it are to be met with near to 
the highest range of vegetation. In many of the Highland 
districts of Scotland it may be observed filling the straths 
with massy timber, and ascending the mountain sides associ- 
ated with the native pine, and, with the exception of that tree, 
perhaps no other plant, native or foreign, was ever spread over 
so great a space in so short a period. 
I think the larch is inferior to the native pine for produc- 
ing timber at a great altitude; on this point I must differ 
from some published opinions of high authority. The failure 
of larch, however, in many such situations, not unfrequently 
arises from the surface-soil at great altitudes throughout the 
country being composed of too pure a peat soil, which is less 
