2366

ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM.

PART III.

sun melts the resin contained in the wood, which, running down the sides,fills up the interstices between the logs; and the edifice, thus rendered im-penetrable to air and moisture, will last for centuries without alteration.”This tree, says Malesherbes, “ is the highest, the straightest, and the mostincorruptible of all the Swiss indigenous woods. It is excellent for all pur-poses ; and is so much sought after, that, in several cantons of Switzerland,a piece of larch wood costs double the price of a piece of oak wood of thesame dimensions.” Notwithstanding this, the same author adds that, aftermany experiments, the wood of the larch has been found unsuitable for masts.(See p. 2364.) No wood remains uninjured by water longer than the larch ;and, for this reason, it is in general use, in France and Switzerland, for water-pipes. At Aix, Marseilles, and throughout the greater part of Provence,where the land is frequently irrigated, the pipes used to convey the water tothe ground are always of larch. In Provence, it is also much used by thecabinet-makers, as, from the closeness of its grain, it takes a fine polish.(Nouv. Du Ham.) Desfontaines, in his Histoire des Arbres et Arbrisseaux ,gives a very interesting report made by M. Boissel de Monville on the usesof the larch. This account confirms what previous writers had assertedrespecting the durability of the cottages in the Vallais ; and adds that larchwood is much used, in Switzerland, for shingles to cover the roofs of the houses,and for vine props. For the latter purpose, it is found the most durable ofall kinds of wood: the vine props made of it are never taken up; they remainfixed for an indefinite succession of years, and see crop after crop of vinesspring up, bear their fruit, and perish at their feet, without showing anysymptoms of decay. In most cases, the proprietors of the vineyards are per-fectly ignorant of the epoch when these props were first placed there : theyreceived them in their present state from their fathers, and in the samestate they will transmit them to their sons. Props made of the silver fir,and used in the same soil for the same purpose, would not last more than tenyears. In traversing the forests of the Alps, continues M. Boissel, “ I foundfrequent proofs of the excellence of the wood of the larch. The lightningoften strikes and shatters these trees, the winds break them, and theeffects of time cause them to perish by old age; all these modes of destruc-tion, and many others, made me find a great number of mutilated and deadtrees in these forests. Those which were mutilated had not perished onthat account. The branches which remained uninjured were still growingwith vigour; the heart wood was sound and unchanged; and the tree con-tinued to live during a long series of years. The wood, even of thosequite dead, showed no signs of decay, and had evidently remained in the samestate a great number of years. I gathered several of the branches, and di-vided some of the trunks of the dead trees ; and, though some of the brancheswere become so brittle as to break easily with the fingers, and the wood ofthe trunks so dry as to separate into scales, neither showed the least signsof rottenness. The silver fir, on the contrary, when broken or shattered bylightning, soon perishes ; and the wood of dead trees, in the course of a fewyears, becomes quite rotten.” (Hist, des Arb., &c., ii. p. 603.) The fine grainof the larch wood, its durability, and its not being subject to crack, havelong made it used by painters for their palettes, and even to paint their pic-tures on. According to Pliny, it was employed for this purpose by the ancients(lib. xvi. c. 39.) ; and Evelyn tells us that several of the piaintings of Raphaelare on larch wood.

The resinous Products of the Larch are, Venice turpentine, and the mannade Briamjon ; and both are used in the state in which they are procured fromthe tree. To obtain the turpentine, trees are chosen which are neither tooyoung nor too old; as only full-grown trees, not yet in a state of decay, willyield good turpentine. When the sap begins to be in motion in spring, if afew drops of turpentine are seen exuding from the bark, it is a proof that thetree is full of resinous juice; and, if the trunk were split, there would befound, 5 in. or 6 in. from the heart of the tree, and 8 in. or 10 in. from the