LARCH. 13 



Distil for ever on the streams below : 

 The limpid streams their radiant treasure show, 

 Mix'd in the sand ; whence the rich drops convey'd, 

 Shine in the dress of the bright Latian maid." 



The Greeks call the larch A«^?, and the 

 Latins after them Larix, from whence the 

 Italian and Spanish name Larice, and the 

 German Larchenbaum, from which we have 

 evidently derived the English name. The 

 French call it Meleze. The larch is known 

 as the only tree whose foliage is deciduous, 

 that produces cones, as all the other species 

 of pines are evergreens. The larch sends 

 out its leaves in the month of April, of a 

 beautiful pale and yellowish green, shaped 

 like the narrow leaf of grass, and in little 

 clusters of about forty each, disposed like the 

 hairs of a painter's brush, but which after- 

 wards expand into rosettes or stars, which drop 

 off in the autumn. The flowers appear also 

 in April, and generally are of a fine crimson 

 colour, which at first gives them an appearance 

 something like small strawberries ; but the 

 male flowers extend in length as the pollen 

 ripens. The female flowers are collected into 

 egg-shaped obtuse cones, which when ma- 

 tured are from one to two inches in length, 

 and whose scales protect the seeds in the 

 same manner as the cones of the fir and 

 cedar, &c. 



