Page:Wayside and Woodland Blossoms.djvu/318

156 appear they are in tufts, arranged alternately, as shown in our figure, but as the season advances each tuft lengthens into a twig and the leaves become scattered along it as the wood grows the tree not gaining in good looks thereby. The tree has a wonderfully slender pyramidal form, due to the downward growth of all the branches. It is greatly appreciated as a timber-producing tree, its useful wood being fit to use when the tree is only forty years of age, in which respect it has distinct advantage over the Scotch-pine, which requires eighty years in order to produce serviceable timber. In its early years its annual growth exceeds two feet. At ten years of age from the sowing of the seed it has reached the height of twenty or twenty-five feet, and at fifty years it is eighty feet high. Its natural life is from one hundred and fifty to two hundred years. The Larch and the Spruce-fir have to a great extent supplanted the Scotch-pine in this country, owing to their more rapid growth and development of wood.

In its native countries the bark of the Larch is used for tanning, and the young shoots as fodder for cattle, whilst its resin is an article of commerce under the title of Venice turpentine.