CHAPTER XXXI.
LARCHES.
THE LARCH TREE (Abies Larix).
This is a deciduous tree, and is considered by many eminent botanists to be of the same genus as the Spruce; the leaves grow in clusters and spread out in a brush or mop-like form, and in the spring, when quite fresh, they have a beautiful light-green tint, which make them very remarkable among other trees. The cones are of an oblong shape, and somewhat blunt.
The Larch is a native of the European Alps and the Apennines, and is found abundantly in Russia and in Siberia. It thrives in dry, elevated, and almost barren land, and for this reason is perhaps the most profitable tree that can be planted in a poor soil. It grows at about the same rate, in such situations, as the Pinus sylvestris does in more fertile localities, making 1 inch of wood in about 5½ years, or 2 feet in diameter in about 130 years (vide Table II., p. 18).
In Scotland it has been planted by the Duke of Athol and others in immense quantities, and it has been stated that at elevations of upwards of 1,500 feet above the sea level, trees have been felled when only eighty years old that have yielded each from five to six loads of
