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WESTERN LARCH TREE. 
We met with this, apparently distinct species of Larch, 
in the coves of the Rocky Mountains on the western slope 
towards the Oregon. It resembles the European Larch,, 
but the leaves are shorter, thicker, and quite rigid, so as 
to be pungent at the points, and the leaves having a double 
channel above and beneath, are, though flat, in part tetra- 
gonal, the central rib beneath is very wide and obtuse, 
they are also shining. The longest leaf is scarcely an inch. 
The cone, (not perfect,) in a young state, has no vestige 
of pubescence, and the bractes with their leafy points are 
half an inch long, ovate-lanceolate, a little torn on the 
upper edges, the centre is carried out into a true rigid 
channelled and pungent green leaf. It appears allied to L. 
pendula , but the leaves are twice as thick. The quality of 
its wood, or any thing concerning its economy we had no 
opportunity to learn; that of the small coned American 
Larch ( Larix microcarpa ), is so ponderous, that it will 
scarcely swim in water. 
The European Larch ( Larix Europcea ), thrives well in 
the northern parts of the Union, particularly round Boston, 
and is at once extremely useful and ornamental. In suit- 
able situations the timber arrives at perfection in 40 years, 
or in about half the time as that of the Scotch Pine, and it 
is found to grow best in poor sandy and rocky soils where 
scarcely any thing else will survive. When fully growm it 
attains the height of from 60 to 130 feet. Its durability, 
exposed either to the action of the air or water, is without 
any parallel. The wood is also of a beautiful yellowish- 
white colour, sometimes inclining to brown, very hard, 
capable of receiving a degree of polish equal to any wood 
yet known, and much superior in this respect to that of 
the finest mahogany. The log cottages constructed of the 
squared trunks of larch, in the valleys and other parts of 
Switzerland, last for centuries without alteration; it is also 
used for shingles to cover the roofs of the houses and for 
