100 



BRITISH FOREST TREES. 



old her upper timbers were so much decayed as to 

 reqmre renewal, which was done with larch ; that 

 18 years after this repair this sloop went to pieces 

 on the remains of the pier of IMethel, Fifeshire, and 

 the top timbers and second foot-hooks of larch were 

 washed ashore as tough and sound as when first put 

 into the vessel, not one spot of decay appearing, they 

 having assumed the blue dark coloiu which some 

 timber acquu'es in moist situations, when it may be 

 stiled cured; bemg either no longer liable to the 

 putrid change constituting dry rot, or which forms 

 timber into a proper soil for the growth of dry rot ; 

 or^ from this blueness caused by the union of the 

 tannin with iron acting as a poison on vegetation : 

 this blueness, resulting from some alteration in the 

 balance of affinities, occurs chiefly in timber contain- 

 ing much of the tannin principle, in which larch 

 abounds. The owner of a larch brig who had em- 

 ployed her for several years on tropical voyages, also 

 assm'es us that the timber will wear well in any cli- 

 mate, and that he would prefer larch to any other 

 kind of wood, especially for small vessels; he also 

 states that the deck of this brig, composed of larch 

 plank, stood the tropical heat well, and that it did 

 not warp or shrink as was apprehended. 



From the softness of the fibre and want of den- 



