DECIDUOUS ORNAMENTAL TREES. 
247 
however all the former was consumed, he was astonished to 
find the Larch tower uninjured.* The wood is also recom- 
mended for the decks of vessels, and the masts of ships, as 
it is little liable either to fly in splinters in an engagement, 
or to catch fire readily. 
In Great Britain, immense plantations of this tree are 
made with a view to profit ; and although as yet nothing 
like rearing trees for timber has been attempted here, never- 
theless the time must come when our attention will neces- 
sarily be turned in this direction. When such is the case, 
it is probable that the Larch will be found to be as much 
an object of profit, on this side of the Atlantic, as on the 
other. Indeed, we are much inclined to believe, that thou- 
sands of acres of our sterile soils in some districts, might 
now be profitably planted with this tree. 
In Scotland, the Larch was first introduced in the year 
1738, when eleven plants were given to the Duke of Athol, 
who afterwards struck by the rapidity of their growth, and 
the excellency of their timber, planted thousands of acres 
with them. As a specimen of what is done in timber 
growing abroad, and the peculiar capacity of the Larch for 
thriving on poor soils, we shall make some extracts from 
the account given of its growth in Scotland, by Sir T. D. 
Lauder. 
“ The late Duke of Athol planted large districts with this 
tree, and thereby converted the heathy wastes into valuable 
forests ; but this was not the whole of the improvement he 
thus created. The Larch being a deciduous tree, sheds upon 
the earth so great a shower of decayed spines every succeed- 
Newton’s Vitruvius, p. 40, 
