LARCH. TAMARACK. (Larix.)
Larch was well known in the older time, and was prized in Europe and the Orient. The two principal American species are also called tamarack and hackmatack. The Eastern larch or tamarack (L. americana) prefers peculiar low, wet areas known as tamarack swamps. The Western tree (L. occidentalis) resembles the European species and prefers dry places.
Larch wood has always been regarded as very durable. It is noted by Pliny and other ancient authors.[88] Vitruvius mentions a bridge that, having burned, was replaced by one of larch, because that wood would not burn as readily.[89] The foundation-piles of Venice are said to be of larch.[90] It should be remembered that the identities of ancient woods are not always beyond question. American larch resembles, if it does not equal, true foreign wood. The trees are tall and straight, but so slender as to be seldom cut into lumber, almost the entire supply being demanded for posts, ties, and poles. The exceedingly durable wood resembles spruce in structure, and hard pine in weight and appearance.
Larch trees are marked by the fact that their foliage is deciduous. The little leaves, gathered in tufts or bundles, are of a bright pea-green when fresh in the springtime. The appearance of tamarack trees when divested of foliage in the winter is very gloomy. [p165]
FOOTNOTES
[88] Pliny, XVI, 43-49 and XVI, 30.
[89] Vitruvius, II, 9.
[90] Encyclopædia Britannica, Vol. XIV, p. 310.
PLATE 32. LARCH (Larix).