334 THE COTTAGE GARDENER. January 30. 
Holland plants, sucli as Boronias, Eriostemons, Les- 
clienaultias, &c.; all perfect pictures of artistic skill, 
and in luxuriant health. Every young gardener should 
see this house and its contents; it would be a lesson 
in plant-culture to him worth a 200 miles’ journey to 
see and learn. 
Heaths, of course, were in good health. This Nursery 
has been famous for them for the last half-century. In 
the Heath-house there is a border, and in that there 
is planted my friend Beaton’s favourite plant, the 
Lapageria rosea. It flowered well last summer, and is 
now sending up a stronger shoot than ever, and will 
most probably flower well next season. 
T. Appleby. 
WOODS AND FORESTS. 
THE COMMON LARCH. 
(Continued from page 241.) 
Two hundred years ago this very excellent timber was 
scarcely known in our plantations. I have read some¬ 
where, that the Duke of Athol, at Dunkeld, in Scotland, 
had two young plants sent him from abroad. They 
were potted, and kept in a greenhouse through the 
winter, and in the spring were planted out in the flower- 
garden in front of that greenhouse, where they grew 
rapidly, and attained nearly 100 feet in height, producing j 
plenty of cones and ripe seeds. From the progeny of I 
these two trees the plantations belonging to the noble 
and patriotic Duke were planted ; and, now, probably, 
the descendants of those trees have clothed many of 
the Scotch mountains with timber. I have no doubt, in 
time, the Deodar, which may be called the evergreen 
Larch, will multiply as rapidly, and will be planted as 
largely, as the Larch. 
This valuable tree is a native of the Alps of Europe, 
and is found in the highest perfection, as a timber tree, 
on the north side of the mountains. From this circum¬ 
stance, it is the very best tree we have to plant in similar 
situations; and many a bleak, craggy, wild scene among 
our hills and mountains, where any other tree would 
scarcely exist, might be clothed and rendered useful, 
affording shelter to the lower lands, as well as adding 
greatly to the national wealth. Though this has been 
done to a considerable extent, yet there are thousands of 
acres in England as wild and as barren as they were 
left at the time of the deluge. In Scotland, I believe, 
more of this tree has been planted within the last 
century than in any other country in the world. In my 
various journies through Derbyshire, Yorkshire, Lanca¬ 
shire, and North Wales, I have viewed many a barren 
mountain side with the longing eyes of a planter, and 
pictured in my mind’s eye how I could improve the 
appearance of such barren scenes if I had authority 
from the owners to plant them with Larches, or any 
other suitable trees. Alas! I am afraid this horrid 
war has already, with its vast expense of blood and 
treasure, put, in a great measure, a stop to such im¬ 
provements. 
It is only in peaceful, prosperous times that pro¬ 
prietors turn their attention to improving their estates; 
and by so doing, transmit to their descendants a country 
more valuable, more productive, and greatly enhanced 
in beauty. Had the Emperor of Russia spent half the 
wealth he has squandered in gratifying his insatiable 
ambition in improving, planting, and draining his 
country, setting thereby a glorious example to his 
nobles, Russia would then have been truly a powerful 
nation, and men would have blessed his memory. We 
can only hope that as men are better educated, and 
knowledge of their true interests increased, that they 
will see and feel the evils of war, and so earnestly value 
the blessings of peace, that they will make almost any 
sacrifice, in reason, to ensure its continuance. 
The timber of the Larch is quite equal to the best 
foreign deal. This fact has been repeatedly proved ; 
indeed, it is so well known that I need not insist upon 
it. Poles of this tree make good masts for ships, sides 
for ladders, and excellent gate posts and rails; for these 
latter purposes they are more excellent even than Oak, 
because they bear longer, before they decay, the alterna¬ 
tions of wet and dry, especially if the bark be left on, 
it being more incorruptible than' the timber itself. (I 
have used the bark as a covering for the back of rustic 
grottoes, and have found it to last, in that situation, 
more than twenty years.) The bark has the tannin 
principle very strong, though not quite so much so as 
the Oak, yet in sufficient quantity to render it highly 
useful to the tanner; and there is this advantage, in 
stripping off the bark the timber is seasoned thereby. 
Monteith, the author of “The Forester’s Guide,” says, 
that he finds the disbarking of the Larch the most 
efficient way of seasoning the Larch timber. We 
barked some (by way of trial) in the spring, and did not 
cut them down till autumn, and others stood in their 
peeled state for even two years. After various trials, he is 
decidedly of opinion, that the Larch treated in (his way 
at thirty years of ago will be found equally durable with 
a tree cut down at the age of fifty years treated in the 
ordinary way. This being the case, the owner has by 
the practice the profit of the bark, whilst his timber is 
at the time improved. 
Another great merit of this tree is, that it is valuable 
at any age. Every gardener knows the value of Larch 
stakes for his Dahlias and other flowers requiring such 
support. Though rather expensive, near large towns 
away far from the Larch plantations, yet their in¬ 
destructible properties renders them cheaper in the end 
than any other kind of stake. I have had Larch stakes 
in use for four years, whilst Oak ones were quite rotten 
in two. Then, again, the Larch makes excellent ru stic 
j fences placed crosswise, in this manner IXXXXXX)fl . I 
have seen such fences with the bark on more than 
twenty years old. When used as a game fence, to keep 
out the hares and rabbits from an American garden, in a 
wilderness scene, they are far more picturesque and 
fitting than one of wire. Hurdles wattled with Larch 
spray, thickly put in, make a good shelter from the north 
winds of winter. I have seen pits even formed at the 
sides and ends of such a material, with such hurdles for 
a cover, together forming a good winter shelter for 
many half-hardy flower-garden plants. In its native 
habitats, the inhabitants draw large supplies of tur¬ 
pentine from the Larch; but as we need timber more 
than that substance, I need not dwell upon it as one of 
the uses to which we may devote this tree. 
One use more, and I have done; that is, as a nurse 
for other trees. No other tree is so well adapted for 
this use, because the Larch will grow in almost any 
soil not positively wet, and it shelters the young Oak, 
Ash, Beech, or Elm, without tendering them too much, 
as the evergreen Bines would do; besides, the annual 
fall of the leaves of the Larch enriches and increases 
the soil very materially. 1 might enlarge upon this 
point much, and state, without fear of contradiction, 
that a plantation of Larches not only clothes the 
mountain with wood, but also, in the course of ages, 
with soil, perhaps more so than any other tree. 
I may, I think, conclude, that from the various uses 
to which the Larch is applied, its proved perfect hardi¬ 
hood, its facility of increase by seed, so much so that 
seedlings of this tree are cheaper than those of any 
other, and the great value of its timber when fully 
grown, there is no tree that recommends itself so 
strongly to the British planter at the present day. 
Other foreign trees, such as the Deodar, may, at some 
