142 FAMILIAR TREES 



from the Alpine valleys, where the drooping Larch 

 branches have, it is suggested, determined the angle 

 of the low roofs of the chalets, Venice has derived not 

 only turpentine, but also the piles upon which the city 

 is built — a strong testimony to the durability of Larch 

 timber under the most destructive conditions. 



The Larch is generally raised from seed, that grown 

 in Germany being preferred, since with us the cones 

 are often incompletely ripened. The seedlings are 

 transplanted when two or three years old, and their 

 rapid growth, the utility of the thinnings at aU ages 

 and the great value of the mature timber, especially 

 in shipbuilding, caused the Larch, though practically 

 it has only been in cultivation for a century, to be 

 generally recognised, until it proved liable to canker, 

 as affording a safer, greater, and more rapid return 

 to capital than any other tree grown in Britain. 



Though admirably suited, from its rapid growth 

 and absence of large lateral branches (which might do 

 damage in windy weather), to be used as a " nurse " 

 in Oak or other hard-wood plantations, one of the 

 specially valuable features in the Larch is its suit- 

 ability for growth at high altitudes in barren soils, 

 and its power of improving these soils. ' The soft 

 needles anniially deposited decompose into a soil 

 that soon reaches a considerable depth, and when 

 light is readmitted by thinning this soil will grow 

 valuable pasture grasses. 



Probably neither Gilpin nor Wordsworth had seen 

 the Larch in England under the most favourable cir- 

 cumstances, and it must be admitted that 'it har- 

 monises but little with other trees, and is inevitably 



