For picturesque beauty, the Larch is almost unrivalled. Unlike most other trees which must grow old, uncouth, and misshapen before they can attain that expression, this is singularly so, as soon almost as it begins to assume the stature of a tree. It can never be called a beautiful tree, so far as beauty consists in smooth outlines, a finely rounded head, or gracefully drooping branches. But it has what is perhaps more valuable, as being more rare,-the expression of boldness and picturesqueness peculiar to itself, and which it seems to have caught from the wild and rugged chasms, rocks, and precipices of its native mountains. There its irregular and spiry top and branches, harmonize admirably with the abrupt variation of the surrounding hills, and suit well with the gloomy grandeur of those frowning heights.
