In this sketch, I have omitted to describe many important trees, especially those which have but little individuality of character, leaving them to be the subject of another essay concerning Trees in Assemblages.  I have likewise said nothing here of those species which are commonly distinguished as flowering trees.  But I must not omit, while speaking of the pyramidal trees, to say a word concerning the Larch, which has some striking points of form and habit.  Like the Southern Cypress, it differs in its deciduous character from other coniferous trees:  hence both are distinguished by the brilliancy of their verdure in the early part of summer, when the other evergreens are particularly sombre; but they are leafless in the winter.  The Larch is beautifully pyramidal in its shape when young.  In the vigor of its years it tends to uniformity, and to variety when it is old.  Indeed, an aged Larch is often as rugged and fantastic as an old Oak.  The American and European Larches differ only in the longer flowing foliage and the larger cones of the latter.  Among the minor beauties of both species may be mentioned the bright crimson cones that appear in June and resemble clusters of fruit.  The Larch is a Northern tree, being in its perfection in the latitude of Maine.  It seems to delight in the coldest situations, and, like the Southern Cypress, is found chiefly in low swamps.

There are not many trees that assume the shape of an obelisk, or a long spire; but Nature, who presents to our eyes an ever-charming variety of forms as well as hues, in the objects of her creation, has given us the figure of the obelisk in the Chinese Juniper, in the Balsam Fir, in the Arbor-Vitae, and lastly in the Lombardy Poplar, which may be offered to exemplify this class of forms.  The Lombardy Poplar is interesting to thousands who were familiar with it in their youth, as an ornament to road-sides and village inclosures.  It was formerly a favorite shade-tree, and still retains its privileges in many old-fashioned places.  A century ago great numbers of Poplars were planted on the village way-sides, in front of dwelling-houses, on the borders of public grounds, and particularly on the sides of lanes and avenues leading to houses situated at a short distance from the high-road.  Hence a row of these trees becomes suggestive at once of the approach to some old mansion or country-seat, which has now, perhaps, been converted into a farm-house, having exchanged its proud honors of wealth for the more simple and delightful appurtenances of rustic independence.

Some of these ancient rows of Poplars are occasionally seen in old fields, where almost all traces of the habitation which they were intended to grace are obliterated.  There is a melancholy pleasure in surveying these humble ruins, whose history would illustrate the domestic habits of our ancestors.  The cellar of the old house is now a part of the pasture-land, and its form can be traced by the simple swelling of the turf.  Sumachs and Cornel-bushes have usurped the place of the exotic shrubbery in the old garden; and the only ancient companions of the Poplars, now remaining, are here and there a straggling Lilac or Currant-bush, a tuft of Houseleek, and perhaps, under the shelter of some dilapidated wall, the White Star of Bethlehem is seen meekly glowing in the rude society of the wild-flowers.