Wyoming.—For branding or altering or defacing the brand on cattle with intent to steal, the penalty is imprisonment for not more than five years. It is larceny for a bailee to convert with intent to steal goods left with or found by him (Rev. Stats. §§ 4986, 4989).
Washington.—A horse not branded, but under Code § 6861 an “outlaw,” the owner being unknown, can be the subject of a larceny, having been held to be property of the state. (State v. Eddy [1907], 90 Pac. Rep. 641). For the third offence of such a larceny the penalty is imprisonment for life (L. 1903, ch. 86).
See also [Embezzlement]; [Cheating]; [False Pretences]; [Robbery]; [Stolen Goods].
[1] Thus destruction of a letter by a servant, with a view of suppressing inquiries into his or her character, makes the servant guilty of larceny in English law.
[2] This provision was most unnecessarily repeated in the Larceny Act of 1861.
LARCH (from the Ger. Lärche, M.H.G. Lerche, Lat. larix), a name applied to a small group of coniferous trees, of which the common larch of Europe is taken as the type. The members of the genus Larix are distinguished from the firs, with which they were formerly placed, by their deciduous leaves, scattered singly, as in Abies, on the young shoots of the season, but on all older branchlets growing in whorl-like tufts, each surrounding the extremity of a rudimentary or abortive branch; they differ from cedars (Cedrus), which also have the fascicles of leaves on arrested branchlets, not only in the deciduous leaves, but in the cones, the scales of which are thinner towards the apex, and are persistent, remaining attached long after the seeds are discharged. The trees of the genus are closely allied in botanic features, as well as in general appearance, so that it is sometimes difficult to assign to them determinate specific characters, and the limit between species and variety is not always very accurately defined. Nearly all are natives of Europe, or the northern plains and mountain ranges of Asia and North America, though one (Larix Griffithii) occurs only on the Himalayas.
The common larch (L. europaea) is, when grown in perfection, a stately tree with tall erect trunk, gradually tapering from root to summit, and horizontal branches springing at irregular intervals from the stem, and in old trees often becoming more or less drooping, but rising again towards the extremities; the branchlets or side shoots, very slender and pendulous, are pretty thickly studded with the spurs each bearing a fascicle of thirty or more narrow linear leaves, of a peculiar bright light green when they first appear in the spring, but becoming of a deeper hue when mature. The yellow stamen-bearing flowers are in sessile, nearly spherical catkins; the fertile ones vary in colour, from red or purple to greenish-white, in different varieties; the erect cones, which remain long on the branches, are above an inch in length and oblong-ovate in shape, with reddish-brown scales somewhat waved on the edges, the lower bracts usually rather longer than the scales. The tree flowers in April or May, and the winged seeds are shed the following autumn. When standing in an open space, the larch grows of a nearly conical shape, with the lower branches almost reaching the ground, while those above gradually diminish in length towards the top of the trunk, presenting a very symmetrical form; but in dense woods the lower parts become bare of foliage, as with the firs under similar circumstances. When springing up among rocks or on ledges, the stem sometimes becomes much curved, and, with its spreading boughs and pendent branchlets, often forms a striking and picturesque object in alpine passes and steep ravines. In the prevalent European varieties the bark is reddish-grey, and rather rough and scarred in old trees, which are often much lichen-covered. The trunk attains a height of from 80 to 140 ft., with a diameter of from 3 to 5 ft. near the ground, but in close woods is comparatively slender in proportion to its altitude. The larch abounds on the Alps of Switzerland, on which it flourishes at an elevation of 5000 ft., and also on those of Tirol and Savoy, on the Carpathians, and in most of the hill regions of central Europe; it is not wild on the Apennine chain, or the Pyrenees, and in the wild state is unknown in the Spanish peninsula. It forms extensive woods in Russia, but does not extend to Scandinavia, where its absence is somewhat remarkable, as the tree grows freely in Norway and Sweden where planted, and even multiplies itself by self-sown seed, according to F. C. Schübeler, in the neighbourhood of Trondhjem. In the north-eastern parts of Russia, in the country towards the Petchora river, and on the Ural, a peculiar variety prevails, regarded by some as a distinct species (L. sibirica); this form is abundant nearly throughout Siberia, extending to the Pacific coast of Kamchatka and the hills of the Amur region. The Siberian larch has smooth grey bark and smaller cones, approaching in shape somewhat to those of the American hackmatack; it seems even hardier than the Alpine tree, growing up to latitude 68°, but, as the inclement climate of the polar shores is neared, dwindling down to a dwarf and even trailing bush.
| Branchlet of Larch (Larix europaea). |