THE more modern botanists divide the Pine family into three genera, Pinus, Abies, and Cedrus, to the last of which the larch belongs.

The LARCH (Pinus larix) is, after the common pine, probably the most valuable of the tribe. Though a native of the mountains of more southern regions, it thrives uncommonly well in Britain; and as it grows more rapidly, and also in more varied soils than the other, it is, perhaps, better adapted for general cultivation. In the south, it attains an immense height; some single beams of larch, employed in the palaces

and public buildings of Venice being said to be one hundred and twenty feet long. Even in the plantations of the Duke of Athol, and other proprietors in Perthshire, some larches are at least one hundred feet high. The wild alternation of hill and valley in that county, with the general opening of the glens and exposure of the surface to the south, seem to afford the larch a situation something like its native locality in the Tyrolese and Dalmatian Alps: for though other trees, and some of them fast growing ones, such as the spruce, have been planted at the same time, the larch overtops them all; and in summer, when it is in the full luxuriance of its leaves (which are a bright clover green), it rises over the dark forest like an obelisk of beryl. The larch sheds its leaves, and is probably by that means saved from those keen blasts of the very early spring that prove destructive to pines. Even when naked it is an ornamental tree. The trunk is generally straight, tapering gradually to a point; the branches, which are rather small in proportion to the tree, taper up in the form of a perfect cone; and the whole is of a lively brown, streaked with a golden colour.

A few larches are said to have been introduced into this country in the early part of the seventeenth century, as rarities; but it only began to be cultivated as a forest-tree about the middle of the eighteenth century. Since that time it has been extensively planted, more especially in Scotland; and the success has been far greater, and far more uniform, than in the case of any other tree, not a native of the country. It appears that the quality of larch timber does not depend so much upon the maturity of the tree, and the slowness of its growth, as that of the pine,—as a fishing boat, built of larch only forty years old, has been found to last three times as long as one of the best Norway pine. It is not so buoyant, how

ever, nor so elastic; and as it does not dry so completely as pine, boards of it are more apt to warp. It is, however, much more tough and compact; and, what are very valuable properties, it approaches nearly to being proof, not only against water, but against fire. If the external timbers, and the principal beams of houses were made of larch, fires would not only be less frequent, but they would be far less destructive; for, before a larch beam be even completely charred on the surface, a beam of pine, or of dry oak, will be in a blaze beyond the ordinary means of extinguishment. Larch, however, is heavier to transport and elevate, and also much harder to work, than pine; and as these circumstances are all against the profits of the builder, they probably prevent the introduction of this most safe and durable timber. The Venetian houses constructed of it show no symptoms of decay; and the complete preservation of some of the finest paintings of the great masters of Italy is, in some respects, owing to the panels of larch on which they are executed.

The objects for which larch timber seems preferable to every other, are chiefly these:-gates, palings, posts of all kinds that are inserted either in the earth or in water, wooden buildings, many agricultural implements, cottage furniture, bridges and gangways, carriages for transporting stones and all hard and rough materials, barrows for builders and roadmakers, lighters, fenders, and embanking piles, lock and dock gates for canals and harbours, coal and lime waggons, vessels for carrying lime, pit-props, and hop-poles of the smaller thinnings. For all these purposes, and many minor ones, larch would come considerably cheaper than any timber now in use; and would, in the average of them, last at least thrice as long, the saving to the public would thus be immense; and the lands upon which an abundant

supply might be raised in every county, are at present lying idle.

The NORWAY SPRUCE FIR (Pinus abies) is probably the loftiest of the pine tribe in Europe. Though it has not reached so great an elevation in this country, it has been found in Norway from one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet in height. The history of it in Britain reaches back for at least a hundred years; and as it grows very rapidly, forms excellent shelter, has a majestic appearance, and is always in leaf, it has been introduced more generally perhaps than the quality of the timber deserves. The timber is white, soft, and far from durable. The American spruces are, the Hemlock Spruce, the white, the black, and the red,-the colours of the latter referring to the bark, and not to the timber, that being of the same white colour in them all. The spruce which grows in this country is seldom used but for the coarsest purposes, in consequence of its

inferior qualities, and its knotty appearance from its large branches. As pillars for rustic cottages and porticoes-with the knobs of the branches left, and the bark on, or barked and painted green,-the small trunks, or large branches of the spruce, are very ornamental. Rough ladders are also sometimes made of it, but their strength is by no means equal to their weight.

The lofty and perfectly straight firs of Norway have long been celebrated throughout Europe, as furnishing masts for the largest ships. Milton, in his splendid description of Satan, in the First Book of Paradise Lost, alludes to this peculiar excellence: "His spear, to equal which the tallest pine Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast Of some great ammiral, were but a wand."

The masts of our men of war are principally brought from Riga; but "the White Pine" (Pinus strobus) of North America is exclusively used for the masts of American shipping; and many fine trees are exported to this country for a similar purpose, principally from the district of Maine. Before the separation of her North American colonies from England, very severe ordinances were issued to prevent the cutting down of those firs adapted for masts, which were growing on the Crown lands. These ordinances were issued as early as 1711.

At the beginning of the reign of Louis XVI., a pine was extensively planted in France, Pinus laricio, which has the peculiar property of growing well in a chalky soil. It is a very magnificent tree, but the timber is not so strong as that of the Pinus sylvestris. It has, however, been used in France for ship-building.

The CEDAR OF LEBANON (Pinus cedrus) would, if the rapidity of its growth were at all correspondent