THE LARCH 
43 
tain trees. From the near presence of 
vast Larch woods, the honey of Cha- 
mounixis supposed to derive its pecuHar 
flavour. 
Dr. Christ's account of 
In its own land. ... 
It in Its own country is 
so graphic, that we quote the following 
from his book — " Flore de la Suisse." 
" Its fine and needle-like leaves, which fall at 
the approach of winter, enable it to support 
the extremes of heat and cold better than any 
other mountain tree. Its rough and deeply 
scored bark recalls that of the Oak, but is of 
brighter, ruddier tone, showing reddish-crim- 
son when broken. Lemon-hued £wrW(2 adorn 
it with a dainty, moss-like covering, more 
brilliant than the lichen growth of other trees. 
While young, the mountain Larch is very erect, 
and it is only with advancing age that some of 
its branches assume that densely spreading and 
curved form which impart to it more of char- 
acter and beauty. In good conditions of soil it 
often reaches a great size, for Larches of 80 feet 
in height and 6 feet in diameter, are by no 
means rare. The report issued by the Swiss 
Federal Council on mountain forests mentions 
one tree in the Vaudois Alps which measured 8 
feet in diameter at 9 feet from the ground, and 
yet was only 250 years old. It is one of our 
most precious timber trees, the wood being of 
a deep brown in the older trees, and stoutly 
resisting the effects of air and water. Sendtner 
remarks that its texture is as tough and com- 
pact as the root-wood of Pine trees, but this 
is not from the same excessive amount of 
resin, but is caused by a thickening of the 
cellular tissues until they are completely filled 
and pressed together. In the Valais are chalets 
built of this wood hundreds of years ago, and 
which, though stained a deep black by age 
and sunlight, are as sound as when newly put 
up. The rustling of the wind in the Larch 
forests is soft and musical, and the young 
foliage of tender green imparts to them a 
peculiar grace and charm in early summer. 
In districts of the Haut Valais — as at Kipper- 
wald — where the Larch mingles with the 
Birch, the effect is delicate, luminous, almost 
ethereal. 
" The contrast between the forest-clad 
heights of an alpine landscape, as seen in 
summer and in winter, is very striking. In 
summer, the tree in its foliage of finest 
green, in effect is not very different from 
the Fir; but in winter, and even in spring, 
when the snow no longer covers the face of 
the earth, it gives such a touch of sadness 
and desolation to the landscape that one can 
hardly understand the change. The valley, 
so verdant in summer, now appears bare and 
forestless, because the branches of the Larch 
are so slender, and their colour so pale, that 
the trees are scarcely to be distinguished from 
the brown soil of the forest. In woods of 
summer-leafing trees one is prepared for this 
change, but unconsciously one is apt to 
endow the foliage of the Coniferas with con- 
tinuous life, and thus the eye is surprised at its 
loss. But the debt is amply repaid with the 
awakening year, when the forest bursts into 
exquisite beauty through changing phases 
such as are unknown among the pine woods. 
The finely drooping branches are dotted with 
a thousand ruby-coloured Cones even before 
the bursting of the leaf, and these again are 
mingled with Catkins of fairest yellow." 
The outline of the Larch is graceful 
and picturesque. In its youth erect and 
tapering, with age it often becomes 
quaintlyirregular, the more so if perched 
upon rocky ledges, or standing in the 
track of an ancient moraine and ex- 
posed to wind. Its trunk and limbs 
are then twisted into shapes the most 
fantastic, now standing stiffly defiant 
as though in mute rebellion against its 
hard destiny, now drooping in quaint 
disorder after long battling with the 
elements . Nothing is more picturesque 
than one of these storm-beaten veterans, 
worsted in the long struggle for exist- 
ence, with many of its branches gone 
yet standing its ground, shaking its 
shattered limbs in the face of the blast 
and still decking itself in green to wel- 
