The Larch (_Larix Europaea_, &c.). Though traceable in England for two
hundred years, it is within this century that the larch has been
extensively cultivated for profit. The exact date of its introduction
from the mountain ranges of some other part of Europe is not known, but
there is a popular tradition that it was first brought to Scotland with
some orange-trees from Italy, and having begun to wither under hot-house
treatment, was thrown outside, where it took root and throve thereafter.
The wood of full-grown larch-trees is very valuable. To John, Duke of
Athol, Scotland is indebted for the introduction of larch plantations on
an enormous scale. He is said to have planted 6500 acres of
mountain-ground with these valuable trees, which not only bring in heavy
returns as timber, but so enrich the ground on which they grow, by the
decayed _spicula_ or spines which fall from them, as to increase its
value in the course of some years eight or tenfold. The Duke was buried
in a coffin made of larch-wood! This sounds as if the merits of the
larch-tree had been indeed a hobby with him, but when one comes to
enumerate them one does not wonder that a man should feel his life very
usefully devoted to establishing so valuable a tree in his native
country, and that the pains and pride it brought him should have
awakened sentiment enough to make him desire to make his last cradle
from his favourite tree.
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