Before the gate of the castle was a tower built of huge beams of larch
Original French: Dauant la porte du chaſteau eſtoit vne tour baſtie de gros cheurons de Larix
Modern French: Davant la porte du chasteau estyoit une tour bastie de gros chevrons de Larix
Notes
larix
Quinto generi est situs idem, facies eadem; larix vocatur. materies praestantior longe, incorrupta aevis,1 umori contumax, rubens praeterea et odore acrior. plusculum huic erumpit liquoris melleo colore atque lentore, numquam durescentis.… Omnia autem haec genera accensa fuligine inmodica carbonem repente expuunt cum eruptionis crepitu eiaculanturque longe excepta larice quae nec ardet nec carbonem facit nec alio modo ignis vi consumitur quam lapides.
The fifth kind of resinous tree has the same habitat [mountains and cold localities] and the same appearance; it is called the larch. Its timber is far superior, not rotting with age and offering a stubborn resistance to damp; also it has a reddish colour and a rather penetrating scent. Resin flows from this tree in rather large quantities, of the colour and stickiness of honey, and never becoming hard.… All these kinds of trees when set fire to make an enormous quantity of sooty smoke and suddenly with an explosive crackle send out a splutter of charcoal and shoot it to a considerable distance—excepting the larch, which does not burn nor yet make charcoal, nor waste away from the action of fire any more than do stones.
The Natural History. Volume 4: Books 12–16
16.19
Harris Rackham [1868–1944], translator
Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1945
Loeb Classical Library
larix
larix. Also laryx, larnix,larinx, -ynx.
larch. Also attributive, as larix tree, wood.
1572 J. Jones Bathes of Bath ii. 12 b, The oke trees, pyne trees, larnix [sic] trees, fir trees, ash trees.
1578 Henry Lyte, translator Dodoens’ Niewe herball or historie of plantes vi. xcii. 775 Of the larche or larix tree.
1611 Randle Cotgrave, A dictionarie of the French and English tongues, Larege, the Larch, or Larinx tree.
1626 Francis Bacon Sylva sylvarum; or a naturall historie §642 The Mosse of the Larix Tree burneth also sweet, and sparkleth in the Burning.