EUROPEAN LARCH
Larix europæa
Page [188]
At one time in England the plan of introducing the larch into the forests bordering the English lakes was under consideration, and this greatly disturbed the poet Wordsworth, who was keenly alive to the distressing effects of inharmonious and inappropriate tree planting. In “A Description of the Scenery of the Lakes,” he points out the fact that it is impossible for trees which terminate in a spike, like that of the larch, to blend together and form masses of wood; that if thousands to tens of thousands are added, the appearance is still the same, a collection of separate individual trees, obstinately presenting themselves as such, and which, from whatever point they are looked at, if but seen may be counted upon the fingers. He goes on to express his dislike of the larch in the following words “As a tree it is less than any other pleasing; its branches (for boughs it has none) have no variety in the youth of this tree, and little dignity even when it attains its full growth; leaves it cannot be said to have, consequently it affords neither shade nor shelter. In spring the larch becomes green long before the native trees, and its green is so peculiar and vivid that, finding nothing to harmonize with it, wherever it comes forth a disagreeable speck is produced. In summer, when all other trees are in their pride, it is of a dingy, lifeless hue; in autumn of a spiritless, unvaried yellow, and in winter it is still more lamentably distinguished from every other deciduous tree of the forest, for they seem only to sleep, but the larch appears absolutely dead.”
Many old stories are in existence concerning the durability and incombustibility of the wood of this tree. It is said that Julius Cæsar wished to set fire to a wooden tower before the gates of a castle, in the Alps, which he was besieging; that he heaped up logs of larch wood around it, but was utterly unable to make them burn,—“robusta larix igni impenetrabile lignum.” Evelyn, one of the first English writers on trees, gives an account of a ship made of larch wood and cypress which was found in the Numidian Sea, twelve fathoms under water, and which, though it had lain fourteen hundred years submerged, was yet quite hard and sound.
Exaggerated as these accounts may seem, the fact remains that the wood is extremely valuable, and what the larch lacks in grace and beauty as an ornamental tree it makes up in its merits as a useful one. Thus even among trees there is a just law of compensation.
INDEX
INDEX
- Acacia, rose, [131]
- Acer, [21]
- dasycarpum, [26]
- negundo, [28], [29]
- pennsylvanicum, [27], [28]
- platanoides, [29], [30]
- pseudo-platanus, [30], [31]
- rubrum, [23], [25]
- saccharinum, [25], [26]
- saccharum, [22], [23], [26]
- spicatum, [28]
- Aceracæ, [21]
- Æsculus glabra, [17]
- hippocastanum, [15], [17]
- Ailanthus, [160]
- glandulosa, [160], [161]
- Amelanchier, [174]
- canadensis, [173]
- Angelica tree, [162]
- Apple tree, [167]
- Aralia spinosa, [162], [163]
- Araliaceæ, [153], [162]
- Ash, American, [36]
- black, [38]
- buds, color of, [40]
- downy, [37]
- European, [39]
- excrescences on the, [36]
- green, [36]
- red, [37]
- seeds, [41]
- white, [36]
- Ashes, [9], [35], [41]
- Aspen, [179]
- American, [179]
- large-toothed, [181]
- Balm of Gilead, [182]
- Bark, [6], [7]
- color of, [7]
- taste of, [7]
- Basswood, [141]
- small leaved, [141]
- white, [141]
- Beech, [7], [77]
- American, [77]
- blue, [72]
- European, [79]
- purple, [80]
- Betula, [61]
- alba, [68]
- lenta, [63], [64]
- lutea, [64], [66]
- nigra, [66]
- papyrifera, [60], [61]
- populifolia, [62], [63]
- pumila, [68]
- Betulaceæ, [59]
- Bigelow, [158]
- Bignoniaceæ, [153], [158]
- Birch, [59]
- American, [62]
- beer, [64]
- black, [63]
- canoe, [7], [60]
- dwarf, [68]
- European white, [68]
- gray, [62]
- paper, [60]
- red, [66]
- river, [66]
- sweet, [63]
- white, [60], [62]
- Birch, yellow, [64]
- Birches, [59]
- Bosc, [169]
- Boutcher, [80]
- Box elder, [28]
- Branches, [6], [7], [10]
- Bryant, quoted, [119]
- Buckeye, Ohio, [17]
- Buckeyes, [15]
- Buds, [6], [10], [11]
- accessory, [11]
- adventitious, [11]
- axillary, [6], [10]
- collateral, [11]
- flower, [11]
- flowers in the, [10]
- latent, [11]
- lateral, [6], [10]
- scales of, [9]
- superposed, [11]
- terminal, [6], [10]
- winter, [11]
- Bundle-scars, [10]
- Butternut, [11], [45]
- sugar from sap of, [47]
- Buttonwood, [117]
- Cambium layer, [5], [6]
- Carpinus, [73]
- caroliniana, [72], [74]
- Castanea, [82]
- dentata, [81], [83]
- Catalpa, hardy, [158]
- speciosa, [158], [160]
- Celtis, [101]
- occidentalis, [112], [113]
- Cercis canadensis, [136]
- Cherry, black, [7], [171]
- bird, [172]
- choke, [172]
- pin, [172]
- red, [172]
- sweet, [172]
- Chestnut, [77], [81]
- Spanish, [82]
- Cladrastis, [134]
- lutea, [134]
- Cook, [80]
- Cork tree, [89]
- Cornaceæ, [120]
- Cornel, flowering, [121]
- Cornus, [122]
- florida, [121], [122]
- Cottonwood, [183]
- swamp, [184]
- Cucumber tree, [155]
- Dogwood, [120]
- flowering, [121]
- poison, [121]
- Du Hamel, quoted, [143]
- Elm, [101]
- American, [5], [10], [101], [102]
- cork, [7], [107], [144]
- Dutch, [111]
- English, [101], [108]
- feathered, [11], [103]
- Lancaster, [103]
- red, [105]
- rock, [107]
- Scotch, [111]
- slippery, [7], [105]
- Thomas’s, [107]
- white, [102]
- wych, [111]
- Elms, [101]
- Emerson, quoted, [37], [39], [87], [91], [94], [108], [119], [183]
- Evelyn, quoted, [41], [80], [190]
- Fagaceæ, [77]
- Fagus, [79]
- americana, [77]
- Fagus sylvatica, [78], [80]
- Fraxinus, [35]
- americana, [36]
- excelsior, [39]
- nigra, [38]
- pennsylvanica, [37]
- Fruit, [8]
- Gerard, quoted, [70], [111], [180]
- Gleditsia, [133]
- triacanthos, [132], [133]
- Gilpin, [80], [119]
- Gray, quoted, [47], [119]
- Growth, [6], [9], [10]
- annual rings of, [6]
- Gymnocladus dioicus, [135]
- Hackberry, [101], [112]
- Hackmatack, [187]
- Hamamelidaceæ, [141]
- Hamamelis, [144], [146]
- Hamerton, quoted, [69]
- Heartwood, [5], [6]
- Hercules’ club, [162]
- Hickories, [9], [45]
- Hickory, bitternut, [53]
- mockernut, [7], [51]
- pignut, [54]
- shagbark, [7], [49]
- shellbark, [49]
- white-heart, [51]
- Hicoria, [45], [51]
- alba, [51]
- glabra, [54], [56]
- minima, [53], [54]
- ovata, [49]
- Hippocastanaceæ, [15]
- Holmes, quoted, [109], [118]
- Homer, quoted, [180]
- Hop hornbeam, [8], [71]
- Hornbeam, [7], [72]
- Horsechestnut, [8], [9], [15], [41], [143]
- Horsechestnut buds, [15], [16]
- flowers, [16]
- leaf-scars, [15]
- twigs, [15]
- Indian bean, [158]
- Internodes, [9]
- Ironwood, [71]
- Jekyll, quoted, [69]
- Judas tree, [136]
- Juglandaceæ, [45]
- Juglans, [45], [47]
- cinerea, [45]
- nigra, [48]
- regia, [49]
- Juneberry, [173]
- Kentucky coffee tree, [129], [135], [160], [161]
- Knight, [169]
- Laburnum vulgare, [136]
- Larch, [187]
- American, [187]
- European, [188]
- Larix, [188]
- americana, [187]
- europæa, [188]
- Lauraceæ, [141], [147]
- Leaf-scars, [9], [10]
- Leguminosæ, [129]
- Lenticels, [8], [16]
- Lime trees, [143]
- Linden, [141]
- common, [141]
- European, [141], [143]
- Linnæus, [28], [67], [143], [145], [146]
- Liquidambar, [144], [145]
- styraciflua, [144], [146]
- Liquidamber, [7], [144]
- Liriodendron, [153], [157]
- tulipifera, [155]
- Locust, clammy, [131]
- common, [129]
- honey, [132]
- Loudon, [31], [111], [124], [148]
- Lowell, quoted, [24]
- Lubbock, quoted, [156]
- Magnolia acuminata, [155]
- glauca, [153], [154]
- swamp, [153]
- tripetala, [154], [155]
- Magnoliaceæ, [153], [157]
- Maple, [21]
- ash-leaved, [28]
- bird’s eye, [23]
- curled, [25]
- moosewood, [27]
- mountain, [7], [28]
- Norway, [29]
- red, [10], [11], [23]
- rock, [22]
- silver, [25]
- striped, [7], [27]
- sugar, [7], [22]
- swamp, [23]
- sycamore, [30]
- white, [25]
- Maples, [9], [21], [41]
- Maple sugar, [22], [23]
- Mathews, [80]
- Medullary rays, [6]
- Michaux, [55], [79], [88], [145]
- Milton, quoted, [109]
- Moracæ, [122]
- Morus, [123]
- alba, [123], [124]
- rubra, [123]
- Mountain ash, [170]
- Mulberry, red, [123]
- white, [122], [124]
- Nettle tree, [112]
- Nodes, [9]
- Nyssa, [120]
- sylvatica, [120]
- Oak apples, [93]
- bear, [97]
- black, [92]
- bur, [88]
- chestnut, [89]
- chinquapin, [90]
- dwarf chestnut, [90]
- mossy-cup, [88], [144]
- overcup, [88]
- pin, [96]
- post, [91]
- red, [93]
- rock chestnut, [89]
- rough, [91]
- scarlet, [95]
- scrub, [97]
- swamp white, [86]
- white, [85]
- Oaks, [9], [77], [83], [84]
- Oleaceæ, [35]
- Ostrya, [72]
- virginiana, [71], [72]
- Ovid, quoted, [110]
- Pallas, quoted, [182]
- Peach tree, [172]
- buds of, [173]
- Pear tree, [169]
- Pepperidge, [120]
- Phyllotaxy, [81], [82]
- Pinaceæ, [187]
- Pith, [6], [8]
- color, [8]
- form, [8]
- rays, [6]
- Plane tree, [117]
- Platanaceæ, [117]
- Platanus, [119]
- occidentalis, [117], [119]
- orientalis, [119]
- Plum, [172]
- Poplar, balm of Gilead, [182]
- balsam, [182]
- Carolina, [183]
- cottonwood, [183]
- Lombardy, [184]
- necklace, [183]
- swamp cottonwood, [184]
- white, [184]
- Populus, [177], [181]
- balsamifera, [182]
- deltoides, [183], [184]
- grandidentata, [181], [182]
- heterophylla, [184]
- tremuloides, [179], [181]
- Prunus, [172]
- avium, [172]
- domestica, [172]
- pennsylvanica, [172]
- persica, [172]
- serotina, [171], [172]
- virginiana, [172]
- Pyrus, [168]
- americana, [170], [171]
- communis, [169]
- malus, [167]
- sambucifolia, [171]
- Quercus, [83], [85]
- alba, [85]
- coccinea, [95], [96]
- macrocarpa, [88], [89]
- minor, [91], [92]
- palustris, [96], [97]
- platanoides, [86], [88]
- prinus, [89]
- prinoides, [90], [91]
- pumila, [97]
- rubra, [93], [95]
- velutina, [92], [93]
- Redbud, [136]
- Robinia, [130]
- hispida, [131]
- pseud-acacia, [129], [130]
- viscosa, [131]
- Rosaceæ, [167]
- Rowan tree, [170]
- Salicaceæ, [177]
- Salix alba, [177]
- babylonica, [178]
- nigra, [179]
- Sapwood, [5]
- Sargent, quoted, [104], [107], [124], [135], [145]
- Sassafras, [7], [141], [147]
- Sassafras sassafras, [147], [149]
- Scars, [9]
- fruit, [9]
- leaf, [9]
- stipule, [9]
- Service berry, [173]
- Scott, quoted, [69], [180]
- Shad bush, [173]
- Shenstone, quoted, [70]
- Silkworms, [124], [125]
- Simaroubaceæ, [153], [159]
- Sour gum tree, [120]
- Spenser, quoted, [180]
- Stems, [8], [9]
- Stipules, [9]
- Sugar berry, [112]
- Sumac poison, [121]
- Sweet bay, [153]
- Sweet gum, [144]
- Sycamore, [117]
- Tamarack, [187]
- Tennyson, quoted, [40], [41]
- Thoreau, [24]
- quoted, [65], [148]
- Thorns, [8]
- Tilia americana, [141]
- Tiliaceæ, [141]
- Tree of heaven, [160]
- Trees, [3], [4]
- age of, [6], [8], [9]
- dool, [31]
- Trunk, tree, [5]
- deliquescent, [5]
- dicotyledonous, [5]
- excurrent, [5]
- Tulip tree, [153], [155]
- Tupelo, [7], [120]
- Twigs, [8]
- Ulmaceæ, [101]
- Umbrella tree, [154]
- Ulmus, [101], [105]
- americana, [102]
- campestris, [108], [110], [112]
- Ulmus montana, [111], [112]
- pubescens, [105], [106]
- racemosa, [107], [108]
- Vascular bundles, [10]
- Virgil, quoted, [110]
- Virgilia, [135]
- Walnut, black, [48]
- English, [49]
- Walnuts, [8], [9], [45]
- Willow, black, [179]
- “pussy,” [178]
- weeping, [7], [178]
- white, [177]
- Witch-hazel, [146]
- Wood, [5], [6]
- silver grain of, [6]
- Wordsworth, quoted, [189]
- Yellowwood, [129], [134]
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