86 



PINACE^. 



fastidious than, and prefers somewliat different soils and situations to, 

 the prototype, or any of the other kinds. 



LarIX AmkricaNA : The American Larch Fir. 

 This tree was introduced to us early in the eighteenth century ; but 

 even in the present it is but rarely to be found in any plantation, wood, 

 or forest, in this country ] which may be accounted for by the mania 

 for the European Larch Fir, which has run so high amongst us of late 

 years. Compared with the European, the American is inferior in the 

 quality of its timber, and is a less beautiful tree ; but a diseased Euro- 

 pean Larch and a healthy American Larch will bear a more favourable 

 comparison ; and as I hold that the common Larch Eir, in its present 

 diseased condition, cannot be depended upon to produce good, sound, 

 and perfectly matured timber in this country, and that it can only be 

 profitably cultivated with a view to quick returns in the shape of hop- 

 poles, fencing rails or palings, pit props, railway sleepers, temporary 

 buildings, or other ordinary rural purposes, so, until we can obtain a 

 new and healthy progeny of the European Larch, I give a place to the 

 American Larch as a useful and profitable, though coarse-wooded tree, 

 for the climate of Great Britain and Ireland. It is equally hardy, and 

 of equally rapid growth, and, cceteris paribus, more so ; and quite as 

 accommodating as to soil and situation; and would produce equally 

 quick returns in poles, &c., as the common kind, though, as I have 

 stated, the wood is somewhat coarser. Its cones and foliage are smaller 

 than those of the common Larch, and its branches longer and less 

 regularly disposed. There are several forms or varieties of it, the whole 

 of which are comprehended in Microcarpa (very small-coned,) Pendula 

 (pendulous-branched,) and Ruhr a (red-coloured,) which are hardy and 

 useful enough in elaborate ornamental planting. 



Larix EUROP-^E a : The European Larch Fir. 

 This most beautiful, and at one time valuable, and, even now, 

 profitable timber tree, though so plentiful on the European Alps, did 

 not find its way into Britain until the beginning of the sixteenth 

 century, and for about a century afterwards continued scarce, and was 

 but little known or planted as a timber tree, for at first it was treated 

 as we now treat tender exotics — fixed into flowerpots and placed in a 

 glasshouse. Popular tradition relates some good stories about how our 

 forefathers managed it. The well-known and magnificent pair of 

 Larches at Dunkeld, in Scotland, which were the first sent to the 

 Duke of Athol, and were treated as tradition tells, soon became sickly, 

 withered, and at length they were supposed to be dead ; when, like 



