natural burnish; and this is said to be the grand secret why their gilding on wood is so much better than ours. On account of its bitter nature worms will not attack it, and it is not subject to warp like most other panels of wood; and, being extremely solid, it admits of a fine polish or smooth firmness, and is therefore particularly adapted for artists to paint on, as it throws forth the colouring better than any other wood. It is the wood which the incomparable Raphael chose to bear the strokes of his pencil, and his celebrated picture of the Transfiguration was painted on panels of this timber; and let us hope that we have British Raphaels growing up with our British larches, who will, by their enchanting art, show us that they can metamorphose this wood into beautiful figures, as easily as Ovid transformed the sisters of Phaeton into these trees. The artist not only finds his palette and panel in the larch, but this tree also bleeds freely to furnish him with turpentine and varnish for his paint, and lends its assistance also in furnishing a material for the frame. It is the larch which produces the turpentine known by the name of Venetian turpentine, which is obtained by making incisions in the trunk of the tree, at about three feet from the ground: narrow troughs of about twenty inches long are fixed in the incisions, to convey this liquid into receivers below. The principal season for collecting this resinous juice is from the end of May to September. As our larch-trees become aged, we may fairly calculate on saving much money to the country by using turpentine extracted from our own woods. It is only after the tree has attained the thickness of ten or twelve inches in diameter, that it is thought worth while to collect the turpentine; and from that time, during 40 or 50 years, if it continue in vigorous growth, the tree will continue to yield annually from seven to eight pounds of turpentine. Martyn calculates that an English acre will contain 682 trees, at the distance of eight feet from each other. Suppose the annual produce to be six pounds a tree, on an average, and the price to be no more than two-pence the pound, the value of the produce would be 31. 4s. 2d. the acre. It was from old larch-trees that the ancients gathered the agarick, so celebrated by their medical writers; but this fungous substance is now fallen into total disuse as a medicine in this country, though it is still used in northern countries as an emetic in intermitting fevers. i. i The Tunguses use it to dye the hair of the rein-deer; and the women, in some parts of Siberia, wash themselves, and even their linen with it, as it is found to be of a saponaceous quality. It is now calculated that the Highlands of Scotland will in the next age be able to furnish the whole commerce of the island with timber for its shipping; and it is still to be regretted that so much barren land should be suffered to remain unplanted with this and other timber as we find in the counties of Kent, Sussex, and Hampshire; all of which being connected with some dock-yard, ought not to lie useless to the community when the soil could be so advantageously employed. Plantations that are formed exclusively of larch destroy the heath and all other vegetation; but, after a few years, a fine grass springs up, that is so valuable for grazing, that it has been let from ten shillings to five pounds per acre for this purpose, which, previous to its being planted, would not bring as many pence. Sir John Hay, Bart., and the Duke of Atholl, have had extraordinary instances of this advantage; but it is observed, that when Scotch firs, or other trees, are mixed in the plantations, this benefit is not derived. COMMON LAUREL. -PRUNUS LAURO CERASUS. Natural order, Pomacea; Rosacea, Juss. A genus of the Icosandria Monogynia class. "In various hues; but chiefly thee, gay green! THIS eastern evergreen, which exhibits its large glossy leaves in all our shrubberies, and contributes so considerably to the vernal appearance of our winter walks, seems to have escaped the notice of the ancient Greek and Roman naturalists, although it is a native of the same latitude and longitude from whence Lucullus procured the cherry-tree, which was thought worthy to be placed in the most conspicuous situation amongst the Armenian treasures which he exhibited in his triumphal entry into Rome. The common laurel came into Europe with the name of Trebezon curmasi, which means the plum or date of Trebisond; and as its leaf something resembled the ancient laurus or bay, it was supposed to be a species of that plant; and as the fruit bears resemblance to our small black cherry, it was called the Bay cherry, and Laurocerasus, Laurel cherry. As it now seldom has any name added to that of laurel, many persons mistake this shrub for the laurel so celebrated of old for crowning both the victor and the poet; and this error is more frequent, from our having changed the name of the laurus into bay. The common laurel was first made known to this part of the world by His Excellency David Ungnad, who, whilst ambassador from the Emperor of Germany at Constantinople, sent, in the year 1576, a collection of rare shrubs and trees to Clusius, the celebrated botanist, at Vienna; but owing to the severity of the weather whilst on their journey, and the carelessness of those who brought them, they all perished, excepting the horse-chesnut and the laurel, and Clusius relates that the latter was almost dead when it arrived. He put it into a stove in the same state as it arrived, and in the same tub of earth. The following spring he took it out, cut off the dead and withered branches, and set it in a shady place. In the autumn it began to shoot from the root; and he then |