LARCH. 25 



natural burnish ; and this is said to be the 

 grand secret why their gilding on wood is so 

 much better than ours. 



On account of its bitter nature worms will 

 not attack it, and it is not subject to warp like 

 most other panels of wood ; and, being ex- 

 tremely solid, it admits of a fine polish or 

 smooth firmness, and is therefore particularly 

 adapted for artists to paint on, as it throws 

 forth the colouring better than any other 

 wood. It is the wood which the incompar- 

 able Raphael chose to bear the strokes of his 

 pencil, and his celebrated picture of the Trans- 

 figuration was painted on panels of this tim- 

 ber; and let us hope that we have British 

 Raphaels growing up with our British larches, 

 who will, by their enchanting art, show us 

 that they can metamorphose this wood into 

 beautiful figures, as easily as Ovid transform- 

 ed the sisters of phaeton into these trees. 



The artist not only finds his palette and 

 panel in the larch, but this tree also bleeds 

 freely to furnish him with turpentine and 

 varnish for his paint, and lends its assistance 

 also in furnishing a material for the frame. 



It is the larch which produces the turpen- 

 tine known by the name of Venetian turpen- 

 tine, which is obtained by making incisions 

 in the trunk of the tree 3 at about three feet 



