Alps varies from 6500 to 8000 feet, and in the Engadine is 7622 feet; on Mont Blanc 7218 feet; at Zermatt 7874 feet; in Northern Switzerland, Salzburg, and the Bavarian Alps, 6400 feet; in the Venetian Alps 6700 feet. The lower limit to which the larch descends in the Alps is 1400 feet at Martigny, 2300 feet at Castasegna, 2000 feet at Chur, 3000 feet in the Bavarian Alps, 2000 to 2300 feet in the South Tyrol, 1300 feet in Lower Carinthia, and 1600 feet in Lower Austria.
The Larch occupies on the boundary between Silesia and Moravia a small area, about 30 German square miles, lying between the rivers Mohra and Oppa, and occupying a zone on the mountains between 1170 and 2840 feet elevation ; but only occurring in a very scattered condition above 2600 feet. It grows here in mitre with spruce, silver fir, and beech; and appears to be indifferent to soil, as it is met with on primitive schists, grauwacke, and basalt: it occurs also on all aspects. It is absent from the adjacent high mountain of Altvater, which rises to 4900 feet, and is clothed with spruce and mountain ash. According to Cieslar, the Alpine larch has been unadvisedly introduced into Silesia, and it will be difficult in the future to obtain pure seed of the Silesian variety. Cieslar considers this form to be entirely distinct from the larch of the Alps, as it has a cylindrical stem, with slender branches and twigs which are directed upwards, and form a very narrow slender crown. The Alpine larch has stouter branches and twigs, which are directed horizontally, and form a much more spreading crown of foliage, the stem being much more tapering. Introduced into cultivation at low elevations, the Silesian larch is later to come into leaf, and sheds its leaves earlier in autumn, grows much faster, is less liable to damage from snow, and can, on account of its narrow pyramidal form, be planted much more densely. The Alpine larch will not bear crowding, according to Cieslar, and is an inferior tree for planting in every respect.
In Russian Poland, the larch is mainly met with on the hilly land of Lysa Gora, where it forms large forests on sandy soil between Konskie and Szydlowice, near Samsonow. It also extends over the right bank of the Weichsel into Galicia. According to Vrzozowski, the larch at one time was spread over the governments of Piotrkow and Warsaw, as churches and manor houses built 300 to 500 years ago of larch wood are still standing. The distribution of the larch in ancient times must also have extended considerably to the eastward, as a church built of larch in 1419 is reported to exist at Slucz in the government of Minsk in West Russia. Count Dzieduszycki's forester at Poturzyca, near Sokal, in Galicia, reports that larch occurs there between 600 and 800 feet elevation,
The larch occurs also, but not extensively, in the Tatra mountains, between Hungary and Galicia, where it grows on southwest slopes up to 5200 feet, reaching a somewhat higher altitude than the spruce and not ascending as high as the Cembra pine. Cieslar finds no reliable evidence for the larch being wild in the Carpathians east of the Tatra mountains; and does not credit its occurrence in Transylvania.
Prof. Huffel* of Nancy states that the larch occurs, but is very rare, in Roumania, where he saw it in the mountains which separate the valleys of the Ialomitza and Prahova at 6300 to 6600 feet elevation, Here it was growing either in mixture
1 Forêts de la Roumanie, 6.
