518 : THE LARCH. 
adapted for the larch than for the native tree. No degree of 
cold can injure the larch during’ winter, provided the summer 
has ripened it, but few trees are more sensitive of the slightest 
touch of frost while in a growing state. The leaves being 
remarkably fine and tender, are readily affected by a sudden 
change of weather. On southern exposures, along the warm 
slopes of steep mountains, the larch is a very precarious tree. 
The fine weather which frequently occurs during April and 
early in May readily brings trees in such situations into full 
leaf to be blighted by a succeeding frost, from the effects of 
which they are always very slow in recovering, and sometimes 
die. One of the largest plantations formed in the north 
lately died, to some extent from this cause, along the southern 
slopes, a few years after the plants were inserted; while on 
the flats or level grounds of the same plantation the casualty 
was only perceptible, and on the northern declivities the 
plants were exempt from injury. For the sake of appearance, 
as well as of economy, the larches in such places should 
always be interspersed with some other tree. 
A plantation consisting of larches purely has a bare and 
uninteresting aspect during a great portion of the. year, but, 
under any circumstances, the tree is generally found to thrive 
better in a mixed plantation than in a plantation purely of 
the species. It grows well when associated with the Scotch 
pine, but the best specimens of rapidly grown larch timber are 
generally to be met with interspersed with oak, which is late 
in the development of its foliage, and drawing its nourishment 
from a considerable depth in the soil, affords advantages to 
the larch beyond any other tree. 
The distances at which larches and other trees should be 
inserted in a plantation must always be regulated by the 
situation. In planting bleak and exposed moorland in the 
Highlands of Scotland with larch and Scotch pine, 4000 
plants per imperial acre are usually allowed, while on low 
sheltered situations 3000 plants are quite sufficient ; and the 
proportion of Jarch usually ranges from one-fourth to three- 
fourths, according to the suitableness of the soil for the growth 
