2374

ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM.

l'AllT III.

equal sides, and given contrast and variety to its boughs.” (For. Seen.)Wordsworth, in his Description of the Scenery of the Lakes , says : “ It mustbe acknowledged that the larch, till it has outgrown the size of a shrub,shows, when looked at singly, some elegance in form and appearance; espe-cially in spring, decorated as it then is by the pink tassels of its blossoms:but, as a tree, it is less than any other pleasing. Its branches (for boughs ithas none) have no variety in the youth of the tree, and little dignity evenwhen it attains its full growth. Leaves it cannot be said to have; and, conse-quently, it affords neither shade nor shelter. In spring, the larch becomesgreen long before the native trees; and its green is so peculiar and vivid, that,finding nothing to harmonise with it, wherever it comes forth a disagreeablespeck is produced. In summer, when all other trees are in their pride, it isof a dingy lifeless hue; in autumn, of a spiritless unvaried yellow; and, inwinter, it is still more lamentably distinguished from every other deciduoustree of the forest; for they seem only to sleep, but the larch appears abso-lutely dead.” (Description , &c., p. 93.) There is great truth in Wordsworth ’sdescription. The circumstance of the tree having no boughs, but onlybranches, doubtless detracts from its contrast and variety of form as a pic-turesque object; but the smallness of these branches, by never absorbing thewood of the trunk, renders it peculiarly valuable as a timber tree. Its chiefbeauty, therefore, consists in its powerful unity of expression as a timbertree. When its leading shoot is broken, and one or more of the sidebranches take the character of boughs, (as in the Dalwick tree, fig. 2261.p. 2356.; a tree at Knowie, in Kent; and some others that might be men-tioned;) it then becomes as varied and picturesque as Gilpin or Wordsworth could desire. Its death-like character during winter is very remarkable, andalmost peculiar to the tree. The Gymnocladus canadensis, or stump tree ofthe French (see p. 656.), conveys the same death-like expression, but by atotally different form. After all, the larch can only be seen in its charac-teristic beauty on the steep sides of the mountains of Switzerland ; or, pro-jecting from the rocky precipices of the Tyrol. (See fig. 2263. in p. 2357.)It will, doubtless, have something of the same expression on the mountainsof the Highlands of Scotland ; but there its picturesque effect must begreatly diminished, from the uniformity with which the surface is covered,and the trees being comparatively equidistant, and all of the same age andsize. At least, this was the case in the neighbourhood of Dunkeld , the lasttime we were in that romantic country, in 1806. “ To produce an ornamentallarch, it should be carefully nursed, removing the nurses gradually, to allowair enough to encourage the lower branches, but affording shelter enough toproduce length of stem. I do not know a more beautiful object on a lawn inthe early summer months, though not picturesque, than a tree so treated,

' forming a delicate pea-green cone, from the grass to the height of 50 ft. or60 ft. If properly managed, the lowest branches will live as long as the tree.”We fully acknowledge the justice of this remark, and have felt it ourselves,when seeing even the young larches in the Horticultural Society’s Garden,and some of the fine old specimens at Syon, Whitton, and Pain’s Hill, thelower branches of which sweep the ground.

Soil and Situation. The larch will grow rapidly upon almost any soil, andin any situation, for the first 20 or 30 years; but it is only in a clear dryatmosphere, on a cold-bottomed soil, somewhat moist on the surface, that itstimber is brought to perfection. In plains, and near the sea, it grows rapidlyfor 30 or 35 years ; but, when felled in such situations, the wood is foundrotten at the heart, and unfit for any purpose except fuel. This decay of thewood is much aggravated, when the larches are planted thick, so as to exposebut a small portion of their foliage to the sun, and to retain among theirlower branches an atmosphere surcharged with moisture. The larch willgrow, and become valuable timber, at a much greater elevation above the seathan the Scotch pine, thriving at the height of 1800 ft. in the Highlands,where the Scotch pine does not attain a timber size at a greater elevation