THE planter's guide. 



363 



Pliny have all celebrated it. Strabo speaks of Alpine 

 trees in bis time, used for ship -building, that measured 

 eiglit feet in diameter.'"'" And we know that, in the pre- 

 sent day, ship masts of Larch, of a hundred and ten and 

 a hundred and twenty feet long, are floated from the 

 district of Yalais, through the Lake of Geneva, down the 

 Rhone, to Toulon, on the Mediterranean. 



The Larch possesses a surprising facility of accommo- 

 dating itself to every variety of soil and situation, unless it 

 be wet and obdurate clay, or very rich and deep loam, in 

 which there is no calcareous matter. It appears, however, 

 to thrive best on soils of second-rate quality, and especially 

 in such as are thin, gravelly, and calcareous. More hardy 

 than any other tree — the Scotch Pine, perhaps, excepted — ■ 

 it is a quicker grower than any other, whether as the 

 staple of the plantation, or as a nurse to other plants. 



Without overpraising this extraordinary tree, it may 

 be said that, in point of utility, it is the greatest acquisi- 

 tion of which this country has to boast since planting was 

 introduced into it. The purposes to which the Larch 

 may be applied, and to almost all with success, are so 

 multifarious and important, that, if detailed, they would 

 seem incredible were not the facts attested by experience — 

 to house-building, to ship-building, to cabinet-making, to 

 husbandry, &c. It possesses the power of bearing the 

 extremes of not only moisture and dryness, but the 

 alternations of both, better than any other tree. It is, 

 therefore, unequalled in the construction of mill-dams, 

 machinery, sluices, canals, piles, gate-posts, and the like. 

 It has the singular property of inflaming with difficulty, 

 as was long since observed by PHny and Yitruvius ;f and 

 of being quite unassailable by* the worm. The tree, like- 



* Georg. lib. iv. p. 202, Edit. Causab. 



t Note XX. 



