202 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



gray ; the cones of the American, too, are not more than 

 one-third the size of those of the European kind. 



The Common Larch is a native of the South of 

 Europe, and of Siberia : from Parkinson's Paradisus, it 

 appears to have been cukivated here in 1629; but he 

 speaks of it as " rare, and nursed up but with a few, and 

 those only lovers of varieties."" Evelyn murmurs at the 

 neo^lect sho^m to a tree iiourishino^ so well here : "A 

 tree of good stature,'^ says he, not long since to be seen 

 about Chelmsford in Essex, sufficiently reproaches our 

 not cultivating so useful a material for many purposes 

 where lasting and substantial timber is required. We 

 read of beams of no less than an hundred and twenty 

 feet in length made out of this goodly tree." 



The Black Larch is a native of North America ; it 

 is of a darker colour than the Common Larch, and, com- 

 paratively with that, a stranger in this country : it does 

 not grow so large as the European Larch, but it serves 

 to increase variety, and v>^ill endure the climate boldly. 



In Switzerland, where Larch trees abound, and they 

 have little other wood, they build most of their houses, 

 and make the chief part of their furniture, of its timber ; 

 of which some is white, some red : the latter is most 

 esteemed. Some suppose the redness to be occasioned by 

 the quantity of turpentine contained in it, and to be pe- 

 cuhar to old trees. The boards, cut into shingles of 

 a foot square, are often used to roof houses instead of 

 tiles. When first laid they are xery white, but in two 

 or three years the resin being drawn out by exposure to 

 the sun, fills up all the joints, and spreads over the sur- 

 face ; and, being hardened by the air, becomes a smooth, 

 black, and shining varnish, impenetrable either by wind 



