/'. Larix IS ot quick growth, and will rise to the height of fifty feet or more. The branches are
slender, and their extremities generally hang downwards. They are adorned with long, narrow, soft
/eaves, which spring in tufts from a point, and spread open like the hairs of a painter’s brush. Their
colour is a light green, and they are deciduous. The cones are about one inch in length, obtuse at the
apex, where they generally assume a purplish colour, and have imbricated scales, smooth on their
surfaces, but of a lacerated appearance on the edges. Larches are now become extremely common in
our nurseries, and it has been remarked that those which have been planted in the worst soils and most
exposed situations have thriven best, circumstances which are peculiarly favourable to the increase of
then- number in this country. They should always be planted in clumps, and at the time of their
removal from the nursery, if they be intended for a luxuriancy of growth, should not be more than
three or four years old. I am informed that great quantities are now planted in Scotland, where this
species is preferred to P. sykiestris, on account both of the goodness of the timber, and the quickness
ot its growth.” 1
The wood of P. Larix is used in Switzerland for covering the roofs of houses, being cut into shingles
of about one foot square, and half an inch in thickness, which are nailed to the rafters. At first the
roofs appear white, but in the course of two or three years become perfectly black, and the joints are
stopped by the resin which the sun extracts from the pores of the wood, and which renders the roof
impenetrable to ram. The tree is sufficiently frequent in that country to render the covering a cheap
one. In Siberia the timber seems to have been used very generally for subterraneous, and even sub-
aquatic purposes such as the support of vaults, and the repair of canals. Pallas states that some
buiying places of an unknown nation, and of remote antiquity, still remain with beams and supporters
By observation made on the strength of timber, it appears, that a beam of Larch, clear and free
from knots and every other imperfection, especially at or near the middle, eleven inches square and six
ee an a a ong, can ear, if placed horizontally on its two extremities, a weight of two hundred
thousand pounds, suspended to the middle of it; and that it can bear a still greater weight in an
oblique position. °
It is from p Larix that the true Venetian turpentine is extracted. This substance has been procured
greatest abundance near Lyons in France, and in the valley of St. Martin, near Lucerne in Switzerland.
But what is very remarkable, the inner part of the wood of this tree yields a pure gum, scarcely
inferior in its qualities to the Arabian gum. In the Russian empire this has been receded into the
Shops, and sold under the name of Orenburg!, gum, an appellation extremely improper, as Pallas X
bserves, Orenburg], being very distant from the Uralensian forests, where the gum is collected The
argest and handsomest Larch I have ever seen is at Stratfie.dsay, the seat of Lord Rivers. The t,™k
tins tree is six feet m circumference, at the height of four feet and a half from the ground and in
proportion quite to the top. Its branches rest on the ground, extending over a space forty feet in
diameter. It was planted between forty and fifty years ago by Mr. Malcolm, nurseryman of Ken
w i r culiar * - * — * - * — - — - «
Miller mentions three varieties of P. Larix. The first of which he says is a native of America and
mist be our P. fendula, and the second, which is said to be brought from Siberia, is probably the variety
glowing at Sion House alluded to in my description of P. pendula. It is difficult to determine what I
nietmt by his third yariety, called Larix Chimed, all the trees being now dead.
w h ie h X P6 WaS T ittCn’ that part 0f Pr0feSSOr Marty - - - edition of Miller’s Dictionary in
th 1 I r Su bed' haS becn Published, and I find the learned Professor’s collections on
ubject of the Larch so full and valuable that I beg leave to refer the reader to that work.
entl‘ICd;. " AhTrCatiSC ° n ,lK C “ " Scotch Fit Timber, &c." * Me.
the perusal o f those wh o wish for f u r t h e X rm T t io "™ th issu b je c t ‘h,S ^ “ “ S' r°"S P° int ° f VleW’ ^ wWch 1 rccomm“ d <°
EXPLANATION OF TAB. 35.
a, A. Male Catkin.
b, B, B. Anthene.
c, C. Female Catkin.
d, D. Scale of the same.
e, E. Inner Scale or Bracteola.
f, Unripe Cone.
g, g. Scales of a ripe Cone, with the Seeds.
h, H. Leaf.
L