LARCHES. 115 
EUROPEAN LARCH. 
This tree rises to the height of from ninety to one 
hundred feet, and in general contour much resembles 
the black larch. It is found in the Alps of France 
and Switzerland, of the Tyrol, and in the Carpathian 
Mountains, and in various mountainous districts of Eu- 
rope. Thanks to the assiduous care of the Duke of 
Athol, it has been planted in England as a forest-tree, 
and duly recognized as one of much excellence both as 
an ornamental and a timber tree. It is very durable, 
and adapted to a variety of uses, and is daily growing 
in greater demand. 
Loudon says: “The rate of growth of the larch in the 
climate of London is from twenty to twenty-five feet in 
ten years from the seed, and nearly as great on the de- 
clivities of hills and mountains in the Highlands of 
Scotland. A larch cut down near Dunkeld, after it had 
been sixty years planted, was one hundred and ten feet 
high, and contained one hundred and sixty cubic feet of 
timber. In a suitable-situation, the timber is said to 
come to perfection in forty years, while that of the pi- 
naster requires sixty years, and that of the Scotch pine 
eighty years.” 
W. C. Bryant, in his excellent work on trees, says: 
“The larch, planted four feet apart each way, may in 
ten years be large enough for fence-posts. At that dis- 
tance, about twenty-seven hundred would grow on an 
acre.” 
A great deal of foreign testimony may be cited in re- 
gard to the durability of this tree, as, for instance, tried 
by driving a post made of it alongside an oaken post in 
the Thames River, where the tide rose and wet it and 
then subsided and left it exposed to the drying influence 
of the sun. The oak posts were renewed twice before 
any alteration was noticed in the larch. The vine-props 
of a great many German vineyards are made of this tim- 
