LARCH. 1 1 



This timber seems to have been scarce in 

 Rome during the Augustine age, as M. Vi- 

 truvius Pollio, a celebrated architect of that 

 period, attributes the sudden decay of build- 

 ings erected in his time, in a great measure 

 to the want of larch in the neighbourhood of 

 Rome, it having been exhausted before his 

 time ; and the expense of bringing it from a 

 distance, in those early days, would have 

 been too great for common purposes. 



The larch is a native of the south of Europe 

 and of Siberia ; it grows abundantly in Swit- 

 zerland and in Provence, &c. : and as it must 

 naturally create considerable interest in the 

 generation that is rising with it in these king- 

 doms, we shall endeavour to point out the 

 very spot on which it first took root, and the 

 circumstance to which the larch owes its 

 birth ; and should the veracity of our account 

 be disputed by any critical reviewers, we will 

 call up all our classical and antiquarian friends 

 to defend a point of so much importance, as 

 that of connecting a beautiful idea with a 

 beautiful tree. Behold then, in the graceful 

 larches, the affectionate sisters of the ambi- 

 tious Phaeton, who were metamorphosed into 

 these trees, whilst sorrowing round the tomb 

 of Apollo's son on the borders of the Po. 



