DECIDUOUS TREES. 
407 
form in different specimens; it should therefore be introduced spar¬ 
ingly, and always for some special purpose. This purpose may be 
either to give spirit to a group of other trees, to strengthen the 
already picturesque character of a scene, or to give life and variety 
to one naturally tame and uninteresting.” 
Fortunately we have many other trees—evergreens too—which 
are much better adapted to the uses suggested by Mr. Downing 
than the larch. The Norway spruce is equally picturesque, and at 
the same time a more beautiful tree. It carries all its foliage 
through the winter months, sustaining with its verdure great lami¬ 
nate masses of snow to contrast with the green of its drooping 
branches, while such meagre foliage as the larch carries through 
the summer months is lost even before it is touched by autumn 
frosts and wind, and in winter it stands among its family of pines 
the one naked branched tree which has been robbed of all its 
beauty. 
When the larch puts forth its leaves in the spring, the exquisite 
tender green of the foliage is very charming, at a time when the 
evergreens have scarcely burst their buds, and only the aspen, the 
white birch, the buckeyes and willows, have become beautiful with 
verdure; but in another month the Norway spruce surpasses it in 
every element of beauty and picturesqueness. 
The European Weeping Larch, L. e. pendula , is a very 
curious and valuable picturesque small tree. It requires to be 
grafted at from six to twelve feet from the ground, and when well 
established it is as odd and graceful in its way as anything we have 
seen. Sargent mentions that it is both difficult to propagate and 
to transplant. It is irregularly spreading or flat-headed, rather than 
conical like its prototype, and addicted to eccentricities of form. 
The Sikkim Larch, L. Griffithiana , is, we believe, a native of 
China, and is described by Dr. Hooker as “ an inelegant, sprawling 
branched tree, with the branches standing out awkwardly, and often 
drooping suddenly.” All of which goes to show that it is a tree of 
very odd habit If it is also well clothed with leaves, its deformi¬ 
ties of branching may be converted into picturesque beauty. In 
