The Trees of Great Britain & Ireland/Volume 2/Larix
LARIX
- Larix, Adanson, Fam. Pl. ii. 480 (1763); Bentham et Hooker, Gen. Pl. iii. 442 (1880); Masters, Journ. Linn. Soc. (Bot.) xxx. 31 (1893).
- Pinus, Linnæus, Gen. Pl. 293 (in part) (1737).
- Abies, A.L. de Jussieu, Gen. 414 (in part) (1789).
Trees belonging to the order Coniferæ, with thick scaly bark, irregular and not whorled branches, and deciduous foliage. Branchlets of two kinds, long shoots bearing solitary leaves spirally arranged, and short shoots bearing numerous leaves in tufts at their extremities, these leaves being of unequal lengths and arising each in the axil of a bud-scale. Leaves linear, either flattened or keeled above, always strongly keeled beneath, with a single fibro-vascular bundle and two resin-canals close to the epidermis of the outer angles. Buds of three kinds: (1) terminal on the long branchlets and developing either into long or short shoots; (2) axillary on the long branchlets, scattered, solitary in the axils of the leaves, and developing occasionally into long shoots, or more commonly producing short shoots with apical tufts of leaves; and (3) apical buds on the short shoots, which usually on developing slightly prolong the short shoot and produce again a tuft of leaves, this process being repeated for several years; or occasionally suddenly elongate into long shoots with solitary leaves, or produce flowers. In this way a complicated and irregular system of branching results, very different from that produced by the regular whorled buds of pines, silver firs, and spruces.
Flowers monœcious, fertilised by the wind, arising solitary on the apices of short shoots of two to six years old. Male flowers always much more numerous than the females, directed downwards; globose, ovoid or oblong; sessile or stalked, surrounded at the base by scales, and composed of numerous stamens with short stalks spirally arranged on a central axis; anthers two-celled, dehiscing longitudinally; connective rounded. Female flowers always erect, subglobose, girt at the base by a bundle of leaves, and consisting of a series of orbicular, stalked, ovular scales, each in the axil of a much longer mucronate, oblong bract. The scales, each bearing two ovules, increase in size, as the flower develops into the fruit, while the bracts do not increase.
Fruit a cone, short-stalked and always erect, composed of concave imbricated woody scales, which are persistent and are either longer or shorter than the bracts; cones ripening at the end of the first season, the scales opening and letting out the seeds, which are distributed by the wind in autumn or in the following spring, the empty cones remaining on the branches for several years. Seeds, two on each scale, with a translucent wing, which remains coalesced with the seed, covering it entirely on the upper side, and extending for some distance along its outer edge.
The genus is confined to the temperate and colder regions of the northern hemisphere, and comprises about fourteen described species. Four of these, yen we have not seen either growing wild or in cultivation, will now be briefly alluded to.
Larix Cajanderi, Mayr, Fremdländ. Wald- u. Parkbäume, 297, fig. 88 (1906). Discovered by Dr. Cajander in eastern Siberia, where it occurs along the banks of the river Lena from the mouth of the Aldan at 68° N. lat. northwards to 72° N. lat., becoming here a stunted tree only 10 to 20 feet in height. It usually forms mixed woods with the Siberian spruce or Betula odorata, assuming in wet soil the same appearance as is presented by L. americana in the swamps of Wisconsin; or on unflooded land growing pure to a height of about 70 feet. Judging from the description it is closely allied to, if not a mere variety of, L. dahurica. The young branchlets are yellowish brown with scattered hairs, older branchlets becoming ashy grey. The leaves are very long, up to 2 inches in length; and are accompanied on the opening of the bud by a tuft of dense whitish pubescence, which is absent in L. dahurica. The cones are small, with about twenty scales, which gape widely when ripe, and are broad and concave on the upper margin.
Larix Principis Rupprechtii, Mayr, op. cit. 309, figs. 87, 94, 95 (1906). This species was discovered by Mayr on the Wu Tai mountain in the province of Shansi in northern China; and appears to resemble strongly the European larch, from which it differs in the cone-scales being finely denticulate and glabrous, with bracts short and only visible towards the base of the cone. This species has been introduced into Europe by Mayr, who brought a living plant to Grafrath, near Munich, which is growing there very vigorously.
Larix kamtschatika, Carrière, Conif. 279 (1855); Abies kamtschatika, Ruprecht, Beit. Pflanzenkund. Russ. Reich. ii. 57; Pinus kamtschatika, Endlicher, Conif. 135 (1847). This species, which occurs in Kamtschatka, is said to differ from L. dahurica in having larger cones. It is imperfectly known, and has not been introduced.
Larix chinensis, Beissner, Mitteil. Deutsch. Dendrol. Gesell. 1896, p. 68, and 1901, p. 76; and Nuov. Giorn. Bot. Ital. iv. 183, t. 5 (1897). A tree, dimensions of which are not stated. Branchlets yellow, glabrous. Leaves up to 1¼ inch long, triangular in section, stomatose on the under surface. Cones ovoid-cylindrical, 1½ to 2 inches long; scales numerous, orbicular, entire, coriaceous, furrowed and tomentose on the outer surface, standing horizontally in the opened cones; bracts lanceolate, truncate at the narrowed apex, with a short mucro, extending considerably beyond the upper margin of the scale, and appressed and not recurved in the unripe cone. Seeds about 1⁄6 inch in length with a broad wing slightly exceeding the seeds in length.
This species, specimens of which I have recently seen in the Museum at Florence, was discovered at 10,000 feet altitude in the Peling mountains of Shensi in China by Père Giraldi in 1893. Beissner has raised seedlings from seeds sent in 1899, and some of these have been grafted on the common larch and are now growing in the Arnold Arboretum, Massachusetts.
This larch in botanical characters stands nearest to L. occidentalis. Occurring at a high elevation in Shensi at about lat. 38°, it should prove perfectly hardy in this country; but must not be expected to be of much importance as a forest tree.
The remaining species, ten in number, are tolerably well known, and are readily distinguishable by the characters of the cones and flowers. In the absence of cones, the following arrangement will give a good clue to the species:—
A. Leaves deeply keeled on both surfaces.
- 1. Larix Lyallii, Parlatore. Western N. America.
- Young branchlets completely covered with a dense greyish tomentum, which persists in part in the second year.
- 2. Larix Potanini, Batalin. Western China.
- Young branchlets bright yellow in colour, with a scattered pubescence.
B. Leaves keeled only on the lower surface, the upper surface being flattened or rounded.
- * Young branchlets pubescent.
- † Leaves glaucous, bluish, with two conspicuous bands of stomata, each of five lines, on the lower surface.
- 3. Larix leptolepis, Endlicher. Japan.
- Branchlets of the second year reddish, with a glaucous tinge. Leaves numerous in the bundle, at least forty, long and slender, arranged in an erect cone-like pencil.
- 4. Larix kurilensis, Mayr. Kurile Islands.
- Branchlets of the second year shining reddish brown, pubescent, not glaucous. Leaves few in the bundle, often only twenty to thirty, short and very broad, spreading so as to form an open cup around the bud.
- †† Leaves greenish, with two inconspicuous bands of stomata, each of two to three lines, on the lower surface.
- 5. Larix Griffithii, Hooker. Himalayas.
- Branchlets of the second year very stout, dull reddish brown, pubescent. Short shoots broad and fringed above by very large loose reflected pubescent membranous bud-scales.
- 6. Larix occidentalis, Nuttall. Western N. America.
- Branchlets of the second year slender, light brown, shining, pubescent. Short shoots slender, with narrow inconspicuous fringe of bud-scales.
- 7. Larix sibirica, Ledebour. Russia, Siberia.
- Branchlets of the second year slender, shining, greyish yellow, glabrous, the long hairs present in the furrows between the pulvini of the first year's shoot having fallen off. Leaves very long and slender, up to 2 inches in length.
- ** Young branchlets glabrous.
- † Branchlets yellowish grey in colour.
- 8. Larix europæa, De Candolle. Europe.
- Branchlets of the second year shining, glabrous, yellowish grey.
- 8a. Larix sibirica, Ledebour, var. Russia.
- In certain specimens of this species the branchlets are indistinguishable from those of Larix europæa, and in the absence of cones only show a difference in the leaves, which are very long and slender in L. sibirica.
- †† Branchlets brown in colour.
- 9. Larix americana, Michaux. North America.
- Young branchlets often glaucous. JBranchlets of the second year shining brown. Short shoots blackish. Leaves short, not exceeding 1¼ inch in length.
- 10. Larix dahurica, Turczaninow. Siberia.
- Young branchlets never glaucous. Branchlets of the second year shining brown. Short shoots blackish. Leaves long, exceeding 1¼ inch.
- These two species strongly resemble each other in technical characters, but are readily distinguished, as seen in cultivation in this country, by the appearance of the branchlets, which in L. dahurica are vigorous, long, and straight, whereas in L. americana, which makes slow growth, they are short, curved, and twisted.
- 10a. Larix occidentalis, Nuttall, var.
- In glabrous specimens of this species the chestnut-brown coloured short shoots will readily distinguish them from either of the two preceding species.
Mayr says that though the various species of larch seem very different at the first sight, yet that they all have the same biological character, and are all inhabitants of the coldest limits of the forest, whether produced by latitude or altitude, and that when introduced into warmer regions or zones, they lose their economic usefulness through premature fruitfulness or fungoid attacks. This opinion, though so often expressed in various forms by foresters of continental experience, is not strictly applicable to Great Britain, as the pages of this work will prove; and though the liability to spring frost is greater with the more northern and alpine species, yet in their native countries larches are also subject to frosts during almost every month in the year, and though the young shoots in spring and the unripened wood in autumn are often much injured by frost, yet no trees have a greater power of recovering from injuries produced by climatic influences, provided the soil is suitable; and Mayr truly says that the warmer the climate in which the larch is cultivated the better the soil it requires. He considers that the timber of all larches is practically of equal value, its quality depending on the slowness at which it is grown, rather than on the species or origin of the parent tree.
To Face Supplementary Plate No. 369.
LARCH AT POLTALLOCH
The plate shows a remarkable instance of witches' broom, growing on a larch, which I first heard of from Col. Malcolm of Poltalloch, Argyllshire, to whom I am much indebted for the photograph. This tree grows in a wood called Bar-na-sluid, about two miles from Poltalloch, at perhaps 200 ft. above sea-level, and is believed to be 60 or 70 years old. When I saw it in September 1911, it appeared to be quite healthy, and was about 48 ft. by 5 ft. The dense mass of twigs forming the witches broom was about 15 ft. wide and 10 ft. deep. A stunted spruce grew close to the base of the tree, which was cut away in order that the photograph might be taken.
Plate 369.
LARCH AT POLTALLOCH.
LARIX EUROPÆA, Common Larch
- Larix europæa, De Candolle[1] in Lamarck, Fl. Franç. 3rd ed. iii. 277 (1805); Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iv, 2350 (1838); Willkomm, Forstliche Flora, 140 (1887); Mathieu, Flore Forestière, 555 (1897); Kent, Veitch's Man. Coniferæ, 391 (1900).
- Larix decidua, Miller, Dict. ed. 8, No. 1 (1768); Kirchner, Loew, u. Schröter, Lebengesch. Blütenpfl. Mitteleuropas, 155 (1904).
- Larix pyramidalis, Salisbury, Trans. Linn. Soc. viii. 314 (1807).
- Larix vulgaris, Fischer, ex Spach, Hist. Vég. xi. 432 (1842).
- Larix Larix, Karsten, Pharm. Med. Bot. 326 f. 157 (1882).
- Pinus Larix, Linnæus, Sp. Pl. 1001 (1753).
- Pinus læta, Salisbury, Prod. 399 (1796).
- Abies Larix, Poiret in Lamarck, Dict. vi. 511 (1804).
A tree attaining 100 to 150 feet in height[2] and 10 to 15 feet in girth. Bark of young stems and branches smooth and grey; on older stems (twenty years and upwards) fissuring and scaling off in thin irregular plates, exposing the reddish cortex below; at the base of old trunks in the Alps becoming extraordinarily thick, a foot or more. Young branchlets slender, glabrous, greyish yellow, with linear pulvini separated by narrow grooves; in the second and third year shining yellow with more elevated pulvini, at the apices of which are the scars of the fallen solitary leaves; base of the shoot girt by a sheath of the bud-scales of the previous season, within which is visible a ring of pubescence. Short shoots dark brown, with rings of pubescence marking each year's growth. Terminal buds small, globose, resinous, with glabrous scales, the lowermost of which are subulately pointed. Lateral buds hemispherical, glabrous, broadly conical, surrounded at the base by a dense ring of hairs.
Leaves light green, soft in texture; those solitary on the long shoots shorter, broader, and more acuminate than those in the tufts, the latter differing in length, the longest about 11⁄2 inch long, and rounded at the apex; upper surface flat or rounded, with one line of stomata on each side; lower surface deeply keeled, with two to three lines of stomata on each side.
Male flowers sessile, ovoid, 1⁄5 to 2⁄5 inch long. Pistillate flowers, reddish or occasionally whitish, ovoid, about 1⁄2 inch long; bracts, with their mucronate apices pointing upwards and outwards and not reflected or recurved, about 1⁄4 inch long, oblong, widest at the base, deeply notched above between two pointed projections; mucro about 1⁄12 inch long.
Cones ovoid, with the tips of the bracts slightly exserted, 11⁄4 to 11⁄2 inch long,[3] the terminal scales small and not gaping but closing the rounded or flattened apex of the cone. Scales in four to five spiral rows, nine to ten scales in each row, about 4 inch broad and long, convex from side to side but flattened longitudinally, with the apex usually retuse, often emarginate or rounded; margin thin, entire, not bevelled, and neither inflexed nor recurved; outer surface light brown pubescent, the pubescence most marked towards the base. Bracts oblong, widest at the base, truncate or rounded at the apex, with a short mucro extending about half-way up the scale. Seeds in shallow depressions on the scale, with wings narrowly divergent and extending almost quite to its upper and outer margin; body of the seed 1⁄6 inch long, wing short and broad, widest near the base; seed with wing less than ½ inch long; wing 1⁄5 inch broad.
Varieties
The flowers of the common larch are occasionally white in colour.[4] This occurs both in the wild state and in cultivated trees, as at Arley Castle.
Various kinds of weeping larch have been found wild or have originated in cultivation: and some have been propagated by grafting. Var. pendula, Lawson, is noted by Loudon, who states that there were large trees of this kind at Dunkeld, which had been raised from Tyrolese seed. In this form there is an erect leader, and the branches are spreading or even ascending, the branchlets being very slender, elongated, and quite pendulous. In another form of weeping larch the habit is quite different, as it has no tendency to form an erect leader, the trunk remaining short and often divided near the top into several secondary stems that are bent downwards, as are the branches and branchlets. A remarkable example[5] of the latter form, with extremely long slender pendulous branchlets, was growing in 1888 in Mr. Maurice Young's nursery at Milford. Var. pendulina,[6] Regel, Gartenflora, 1871, p. 101, does not seem to be essentially different in habit from this. Loudon[7] mentions a remarkable pendulous larch at Henham Hall, Suffolk, which was planted in 1800, and was supported on pillars, the main branches forming a covered alley 80 feet long and 16 feet wide in 1841. I am informed by Mr. Simpson, gardener at Henham Hall, that this tree is now in good health, the tall shrubs which surrounded it having been cleared away on one side some three years ago, since when it has made surprising growth. At three feet from the ground it measures 8 feet 2 inches in girth, and at about eight feet forms an angle, and extends laterally for a great distance, being supported on pillars and cross pieces which form a pergola 140 feet long, 8 feet high, and 10 to 14 feet wide, which is almost completely covered by its branches, and will shortly require extension. In a note at Kew, dated 1882, Sir J. Hooker mentions a weeping European larch at Waterer's nursery, Bagshot, which was 50 feet high and had the habit of Larix Griffithii.
Distribution
The most recent account of the distribution of the European larch is by Cieslar,[8] the distinguished Austrian forester, who points out that the tree in the wild state occupies four distinct and separate regions, namely, the Alps, the Silesia- Moravia boundary, Russian Poland, and the Tatra mountains in the Carpathians. Cieslar strongly disputes the commonly accepted view that the larch is everywhere an alpine tree, occurring at high elevations; and holds that the Silesian and Alpine larches are two distinct climatic varieties, differing in habit and mode of growth, in period of vegetation and in the altitude at which they naturally grow. He has not apparently studied the Polish tree, of which I have seen no specimens, nor the Carpathian larch.
In the Alps, the larch is widely distributed, occurring in French territory in Savoy, Provence, and Dauphiné; and in the Maritime Alps it reaches about 44° 30' N. lat., its most southerly and at the same time its most westerly limit. In Switzerland the larch, while generally found, does not occur in the Jura and in the cantons of Glarus, Schwyz, Upper and Lower Unterwald; it reaches its most northerly point in Switzerland on the Gabris in Appenzell. Extending eastwards it occurs in Vorarlberg, in the Alps of Bavaria and Salzburg, in the Tyrol and in Carinthia. According to Cieslar it is wild in the provinces of Upper and Lower Austria only south of the Danube, but is found near Vienna as a planted tree. It is absent from lower Styria and nearly the whole of the Karst; and in Carniola does not occur wild south of the Sannthaler Alps; from Idria the southern limit of distribution runs westward into Italy through the Isonzo valley. In Italy the larch is confined strictly to the Alps and is not wild in the Apennines, where it has been occasionally planted with unfavourable results, as the tree, after growing rapidly for twenty years, slackens in growth and becomes decrepit at 40 to 45 years old.[9] Elwes saw it planted in the Sila mountains of Calabria, where it was producing seed at 10 to 15 years old.
In the Alps the larch is certainly an alpine tree, often reaching the timber line in company with Pinus Cembra and Pinus montana; while lower down, but above the zone of the beech, it is usually met with either pure or in company with the spruce and silver fir. It occurs, mixed with the beech, at low elevations, according to Cieslar in certain valleys of the Tyrol. M. Coaz,[10] Inspector-General of Forests of Switzerland, is of opinion that the forests of pure larch which now exist in the Alps are not natural, but have been produced artificially by cutting the ancient mixed woods. The larch has taken possession of the felled areas and has succeeded well as regards growth; but the pure forests are liable to insect attack and possibly also to disease; so that he thinks that it is necessary to restore artificially the ancient and natural condition of the forest. The highest elevation recorded for the larch is 8200 feet in the Dauphiné. The upper limit in the Central 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[11] 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 with the spruce or higher than it. In Moldavia he reports it on the Ceahlat, where it rises on a southern slope to 5550 feet. The larch in Moldavia and Roumania has been considered to be Larix sibirica; but Huffel doubts this.
Herr F. Mack, forest administrator at Azuga in Roumania, states[12] that larch is common at Bucecii above the beech region, at from 1300 to 1600 metres, mixed with spruce. It attains 60 to 65 centimetres, or about 2 feet in diameter, and is often clear of branches to a considerable height. The wood is hard, red, and durable, and was used in the construction of the Royal Palace of Sinaia.
Introduction
There is little doubt that the larch was introduced into England about the beginning of the seventeenth century, as Parkinson, who published his Paradisus in 1629, speaks of the tree as rare. Evelyn,[13] writing in 1664, mentions "a tree of good stature not long since to be seen about Chelmsford in Essex," and urged its cultivation as a useful timber tree. The earliest trees in Scotland are supposed to be those at Dunkeld, the history of which is given below; but we have no reliable evidence as to the exact date and locality where it was first planted. Loudon's account is very full and should be consulted. The very useful little book by C.Y. Michie on the larch, published in 1885 by Blackwood, must not be overlooked, as it gives a very good résumé by a practical forester whose experience in Scotland was considerable. A.H.
Propagation
Ever since it was realised by landowners that the larch was the tree which before all others could be looked on as profitable to plant, its propagation has been one of the most important branches of the nurseryman's business, especially in Scotland, where by far the larger part of the trees grown in England are raised; and until the disease spread all over the country, and it became evident that precautions must be taken, which in the palmy days of larch-growing were not considered necessary, the majority of raisers were not very careful as to the source from which their supplies of seed were obtained. It was generally supposed that Scottish seed was best, though in years when it could not be obtained in sufficient quantity foreign seed was used.
So far as I have been able to ascertain from very numerous inquiries, the reason for this idea was, that foreign seed usually germinated more quickly, and that the seedlings were therefore more liable to be killed by severe spring frost just as they were germinating. But as all the old larches in England and Scotland must necessarily have been raised from foreign seed, it seems obvious that though Scottish seedlings may have been most profitable to the nurseryman, yet that unless the seed was gathered from carefully selected trees, they were liable in after-life to show weakness of constitution, and succumb, as they often did, to the attacks of Peziza Willkommii.
Another reason has been assigned, with some probability, to the apparently greater liability to disease of larch now than formerly, namely, that the cones are often gathered too early, and exposed to too much heat in the kilns in order to extract them. The cone of the larch does not open of its own accord usually until spring; often in this climate so late that the seedlings make little growth the first year, and the seed cannot be extracted without heat, or by breaking up the cones in a mill, which bruises and destroys many seeds; and in the climate of Scotland they do not often ripen so early or thoroughly as in the drier, colder, and sunnier climate of its native Alps: therefore it seemed to me desirable to make experiments with larch seed from abroad, in order to find out whether there was any real difference in the vigour of foreign and home-grown seedlings; and though my experience in this way now extends over fifteen years, I cannot say that I have solved the question.
On many occasions I have sown seed from Scotland, the French Alps, and the Tyrol, and have found that on my poor calcareous soil, which, though it grows larch very well, is not at all suitable for raising it, a large proportion of these seedlings from all sources either perished in infancy, or grew so slowly in the first two years that they were far inferior to seedlings raised in Scotland on a better soil and climate, and probably on manured land. But many of these weaklings have afterwards grown into robust young trees, and the difference in their liability to suffer from spring frost, which is their greatest enemy, is not sufficiently marked to enable me to form a sound opinion as to which are best.
What I have learnt, however, is that, though seedlings cannot be raised as cheaply or as rapidly at Colesborne as in a Scotch nursery, they are more satisfactory in other ways, because it is better to eliminate the weaklings before they are planted out than to have to replant them afterwards; and I believe that the greater the risk of disease the more careful one must be, not only in the selection of seed, but also in their nursery management. Another point in favour of home raising is that the seedlings are not exposed in their younger stages to the extreme drying of the roots which arises from the careless way in which they are often lifted and packed by nurserymen, and from the long delays in transit on the railway; and, finally, the transplantation in a private nursery is more carefully done, and the roots are better developed and more able to endure the severe check of final transplantation to a soil which is less favourable to their growth than that of the nursery.
Mr. J.P. Robertson, forester to the Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth, writes me as follows with regard to the comparative hardiness of larch raised from native and foreign seed in 1903:—
"We have two nurseries, one at an elevation of 900 feet, the other at about 600. In botha large quantity of larch from home seed have been put in this spring, while in each a break of the Tyrolese, 10,000 in number of similar size, has been placed. These last were from two different nurserymen. In both nurseries the home variety has suffered severely from the strong white frosts that we had in Easter week, while the Tyrolese in each case is practically untouched."
But on inquiry in 1905 whether this apparent superiority was still the case, he wrote:—
"I did not require to wait long to see the results reversed, as severe frosts in June of that same year, I think on 21st, 22nd, and 23rd, when we had 9°, 10°, and 8° of frost respectively, nearly put the Tyrolese bed out of existence, while those that had been cut earlier in the season (the home variety) did not suffer to anything like the same extent. I am now so thoroughly convinced in my own mind of the superiority of larch from home or British seed, that I have entirely discarded the Tyrolese."
Though the seed is ripened in ordinary seasons in all parts of the country, and a few self-sown trees may be found on most estates where rabbits are kept down, yet our conditions of soil and climate are so unlike those of the natural larch forests of the Alps, that it is useless to attempt natural reproduction with any economic advantage. The only cases in which I have seen any number of self-sown seedlings in the southern half of England are where a clean felling has been made of the larch, and the ground more or less broken up by hauling out the logs immediately afterwards. Of the seedlings which germinate, so large a proportion are destroyed by frost, drought, or vermin in the first season, that the number remaining is not worth consideration, and their growth is so slow for five or six years that planted trees of half the age will usually be stronger. On sandy land, however, or at high elevations, and especially in Scotland, it may sometimes be worth while to encourage self-sown trees, but I cannot say that I have ever seen even a small area which is either sufficiently or regularly stocked by self-sown larch.[14] In the Alps, on the other hand, where the soil is covered with snow for three months or more, natural regeneration is both easy and regular, and I have, both in the French and Italian Alps, seen the ground covered with larch seedlings, which, taken up as late as May, when just uncovered by the snow, I have brought to England when a few inches high, with success. Indeed, it is wonderful how long seedlings will live if taken up when vegetation is just commencing, and sent by post in small tin boxes, tightly packed with a little damp moss or soil, and such trees are my most agreeable souvenirs of many visits to distant countries.
The manner in which the seed is collected in the French Alps is described to me as follows by M. Surel, Inspector of Forests at Briancon, a district which is celebrated for its larch forests:—"In February, before the season when the cones are ripe, we choose trees of which the cones are still closed, and spread large cloths round their trunks at about 10 feet from their base. When the cones open, the seed falls on the cloths. It is then dried in the sun, or preferably, in order to avoid excessive drying, under an open shed. The collection takes place at a minimum altitude of 5500 feet, where the snow is still frozen, and the drying of the seed by the sun, which in this district is remarkably strong, the thermometer rising in the sun in February to 30° to 32° Centigrade, is therefore carried on under very favourable conditions. Drying by the stove would give deplorable results. If I were obliged to work in a climate where the climatic conditions made our practice impossible, I should use closed rooms, slightly heated, but of which the air was freed from moisture by chloride of calcium."
I was informed by M. Mougin, Conservator of Forests at Chambery, that in the Modane district the cones are collected at the end of November by men who climb the trees, with a long hooked pole, and gather the cones by hand into a bag which they carry. The cones are received twice a week at the drying-place, where they are spread out in an airy shed, and turned over every day to dry them and prevent them from heating. When the fine weather returns, they are spread out on a cemented floor, exposed to the sun, which opens them, after which the seed is collected and cleaned, and put in boxes, which are shaken frequently to prevent the attacks of insects. Sometimes seed can be collected on the snow under the trees in January by shaking the trees. But in no case is a stove used to extract them, as seems to be the usual practice in Scotland.[15]
From Prof. A. Fron,[16] of the Forestry School of Les Barres, | have received valuable information on the germination of larch seed, which I summarise as follows: He considers that the process usually adopted of grinding the cones in a mill is very inferior to either of those which I have described as in vogue in the Alps, because the seeds of good quality which come from the central portion of the cone are mixed with those from its upper and lower ends, which are usually empty or imperfect. In 1905 he made experiments on the germination of larch seed obtained at Modane, which had been extracted by the heat of the sun, and obtained the following result:—
| Purity | 98 per cent. |
| Germinative power | 61.3 per cent.„ |
| Cultural value | 60.1 per cent.„ |
whilst the average of the seeds obtained from seedsmen only gave the following result:—
| Purity | 80 to 85 per cent. |
| Germinative power | 45 to„ 50 per cent.„ |
| Cultural value | 40 per cent.„ |
I may say that the seeds I have gathered from my own trees late in March, and extracted by exposing them to the sun under glass in a garden frame, have germinated quicker and grown better than any which | have purchased.
An ideal way of raising larch would be as follows: To gather cones in the month of March or April from the best and healthiest mature trees in one's own district, or, failing this, from trees known to be healthy on a similar soil; or to purchase seed of known origin direct from a reliable firm abroad, among whom I can highly recommend Messrs. Vilmorin of Paris and Messrs. Jenewein of Innsbruck.
The seed-bed should be in an elevated position, where spring frosts are not likely to be severe, and sheltered as much as possible from the morning sun by trees or by clipped hedges or high walls. The soil, light and friable, and, if naturally poor, enriched by manuring with leaf mould and road scrapings, and as free from weed seeds as possible, should be laid up into beds 4 feet wide, with perfect drainage, in the previous autumn, so as to have a fine mould on the surface.
About the middle of April, but earlier or later according to the climate, the seed should be steeped in warm water for a day or two and dusted with red lead when damp, in order to keep mice and birds from attacking it.[17]
On a dry day the seed should be sown broadcast as evenly as possible, and thick enough to have about one plant to the square inch, or less if the seedlings are to remain two years before transplanting. If the soil becomes dry the beds must be watered and shaded as the seed begins to germinate, which should be in fourteen to twenty days after sowing. At this time great care must be taken to prevent the seedlings from damping off, and it is better to keep the bed rather dry than wet. If weeds appear they must be carefully pulled up when quite small. If the soil and season are favourable the seedlings will in the first season be 4 to 6 inches high. If they should be too thick to stand a second season in the seed-bed, the strongest should be lifted and pricked off in lines about the end of March in the second year, and if there is much risk of a severe frost it is wise to transplant them all, as this check will retard their too early growth.
After transplanting they should remain two years in the nursery lines, except in the case of strong one-year seedlings, which may be fit to plant out one year after transplanting, but this must depend on the soil and the nature of the ground where they are to be planted out. Except for planting in woods or in places overgrown with coarse grass or fern, seedlings of one year old plus two years transplanted, or two years old plus one year transplanted, are, in my experience, large enough; and any which, from overcrowding or other causes, are not then strong enough may be rejected and have another year or two in the nursery. There will always be a considerable proportion of young trees which are inferior to the rest in size and vigour, and these are better separated when transplanting; whilst all those whose leaders are frosted or immature should be rejected, no more than forty to fifty per cent of the whole being usually fit to plant out at three years old.
The raising of such trees may cost from 20s. to 30s. per thousand in a private nursery, and though they can often be bought cheaper are, in my opinion, worth the extra cost.
Mr. Robertson writes on the same subject as follows:—
"Here we are now, I am glad to say, as little troubled with larch disease as most people, and the reason is simply that we endeavour to keep the plants strong and healthy at all stages of their growth, so as to be better able to resist attack. It must not be forgotten in these days of continental forestry that larch is a light-demanding tree, and ought not to be grown on the same principle of density as advocated for shade-bearing species; but it is equally dangerous to over-thin, and thus bring about starvation, and consequently weakness, by cold winds.
Cultivation
Whether the system of notching or pitting is adopted must depend on the local conditions and the size of the trees to be planted. If not more than 18 inches to 2 feet in height, notching, when carefully done, is sometimes as successful as pitting, but in very dry summers a large proportion of the trees will die whichever way the planting is done. In my own experience allowance must be made, in calculating the cost of planting, for a loss of about 20 per cent on an average, though this is often much exceeded when the trees are planted after Christmas, or when their roots have become dry, or when careless workmen have been employed without very close and constant supervision. This is allowing nothing for damage done by hares and rabbits, which, unless thoroughly killed down before planting and kept out by a really effectual wire fence, will soon destroy a great many of the young trees.
Having once planted the trees, the success of the plantation will depend more on soil and climate than on the skill of the planter. For though larch will, owing to their extraordinary vigour, grow almost anywhere up to fifteen to twenty years old, they will not attain a large size unless the soil is moderately fertile and well drained and the situation open and airy. If large trees are desired, I should always advise a mixture of beech or birch being planted with them or three to four years later; but where the crop can be profitably realised as small poles, or where the soil and climate are really favourable for larch, they may be planted at four feet apart without mixture. The distance apart and the mixture of other trees can only be decided by local experience, the object in view being to keep the trees thick enough to suppress the grass without depriving them of enough light and air to keep their lateral branches alive until they are fifteen to twenty years old. All thinnings should be based on these considerations, and the poorer the soil the more distance is required between the trees to keep them growing. On my own soil I have repeatedly noticed that if grass already exists when the trees are planted, it is impossible to keep the larch thick enough to smother the grass, without crowding each other to the point of starvation and disease, and in such land a mixture of beech, at the rate of one beech to two or three larch, is essential. The result of this mixture is that the larch, instead of beginning to decay at forty to sixty years old, as it often does when on soil deficient in natural fertility, at which period it may be worth 5s. to 15s. per tree, will live and increase in girth till at least 100 years, when they may be worth from £1 to £3 or £4 each. After they have been cut the beech may remain, or if not thick enough to stand with
advantage, the land will be left in a very much better condition for replanting than after a crop of pure larch.[18]
With regard to the probable profit arising from a crop of larch planted pure, and realised at 30 to 50 years as compared with a crop mixed with hardwood and realised at 80 to 100 years, I have, with the assistance of Sir Hugh Beevor and Dr. Schlich, made several calculations, but it depends so much on local conditions, on the price realised for thinnings, and on other circumstances which cannot be foreseen, that it seems impossible to estimate it with any certainty.
I have, however, arrived at the conclusion that the short rotation is, as a general rule, the more profitable, especially where a sporting rent varying from 2s. 6d. to 5s. per acre can be realised from pure larch plantations after the age of 15 to 20 years, when rabbits can be admitted freely without risk of serious damage, or where, as in many parts of Scotland, larch plantations are thrown open to sheep grazing.
What is undoubtedly the best system of forestry is not always the most profitable to the landowner, and every one must decide from his own experience which system will suit his own circumstances best.
When mixed with Spruce or Scots or Corsican pine, as is often done, the larch on suitable soil will usually far exceed the other conifers in value at the same age; and I see no advantage, but rather a loss in such a mixture.
In woods which have been treated as coppice-with-standards the larch is a more profitable tree than beech or oak, and may be introduced to the number of thirty to forty per acre immediately after each cutting of the coppice. If left till sixty to eighty years old there would thus be eventually about 100 trees per acre, which will pay much better in these times than the underwood; for if only ten trees, worth say 30s. each, be taken at each rotation, the value will amount to £15 per acre, and there are not many districts in England where underwood is now worth half as much. In Earl Bathurst's extensive woodlands near Cirencester this system has been adopted for many years with great success; but if rabbits exist it is necessary to protect each tree by a wire cage until it is old enough to be safe from their attacks, which it is in this district after twenty to thirty years of age.
The produce per acre of larch in plantations on really good land has in many instances been surprising, and so profitable to the owner that some writers have greatly exaggerated the average returns that may be expected. Prof. Charles E. Curtis,[19] assuming that 300 trees per acre may be grown to maturity, which I greatly doubt, states as a reasonable possibility of production for the larch, no less than 10,000 to 12,000 feet per acre, and says that it will be found possible to bring 1000 to 1200 poles per acre to a useful and profitable size in thirty to forty years. I have never seen or heard of such an instance, and on writing to Prof. Curtis he could not tell me of anything at all near it.
The best estimate I have is from Sir Hugh Beevor of a plantation at Petworth belonging to Lord Leconfield. It is growing on a steep hill facing east, on sandy loam overlying sandstone, and at thirty-two years after planting contained about 300 trees or more per acre, averaging 15 feet each, which makes about 4500 feet per acre. At Mailscott Lodge, in High Meadow Wood, Forest of Dean, he saw a small plantation, thirty-four years planted, in which the trees on an area of half an acre numbered 214, averaging 9g feet per tree, equal to about 3800 feet per acre.
The best example on my own property is a plantation at Hilcot, now about fifty-four years old, in which there are 2500 trees on an area of about twenty acres. The trees average about 25 feet on the better parts of the land, and 10 to 15 feet on the worst, or about 18 feet over the whole area, equal to about 2200 feet per acre. There are some beech, wych elm, and other hard woods amongst them, which might make up a total of 3000 cubic feet per acre, and though the larch might stand ten to twenty years longer they are not now making a profitable increment.
Mr. J.E. Hellyar Stooke of Hereford sends me the following particulars of a sale in 1907, of larch sixty to seventy-five years old, growing on a hill 400 to 500 feet high, the soil being stiff clay overlying limestone facing east to south. There was no disease except on some of the smaller branches; the trees were all sound, and would probably have continued to grow for many years.
These trees were sold standing, by auction, at such a distance from a railway station that the hauliers could only make one journey daily.
At what age it pays best to fell a crop of larch is a question which depends entirely on the growth of the trees and the local value: in some cases thirty to forty years may be the most profitable age, in most fifty to sixty; and where the trees are planted with a good mixture of beech, and continue to grow well after this period, it may pay to let them stand to 100 years old, beyond which they will seldom if ever continue to make a profitable increase.
I should say that £100 per acre was a very fair average valuation of a clean larch crop at forty to sixty years old, and though it is often exceeded, yet in many more instances I believe that at present prices the return will be less, even when disease has not seriously deteriorated the value of the trees by the scars and cankers which disfigure the trunks.
Diseases of the Larch
Though it is not within the scope of this work to describe the diseases of trees, yet an exception must be made in the case of the larch, because it is a subject of such vast economic importance that it may truly be said, that the losses of all other trees, from all kinds of diseases, whether induced by climatic causes, by insects, or by fungi, do not collectively approach the loss caused to English landowners by larch disease. In using this term without qualification ] mean the disease caused by the fungus usually known as Peziza Willkommii, but which is now named by mycologists Dasyscypha calycina, and which is perhaps best described in English by the name "Canker," or " Blister." This began to attract attention in this country about 1859, when the Rev. M.T. Berkeley[20] made known its existence in England, and Charles M'Intosh in 1860 wrote a small book on larch disease, though what he described more especially was heart-rot, a very different thing from canker.
Hartig and de Bary were the first to describe the fungus. Prof. Marshall Ward in his Timber and some of its Diseases, published in 1889, described it more fully; and since then Mr. Carruthers, Dr. Somerville, and other scientific writers have written largely on the subject. In the Gardeners' Chronicle, 1896, are many interesting articles respecting the larch disease by J.S.W., Sir Charles Strickland, A.C. Forbes, and C.Y. Michie; and an excellent paper on it with coloured illustrations, by Mr. Geo. Massee, appeared in the Journal of the Board of Agriculture for September 1902.
The most practical observations on the larch disease I know of, are in Mr. A.C. Forbes's excellent work on English Estate Forestry, pp. 289–307 (1904). These should be studied carefully by every one who is in any degree interested in the subject. After giving a summary of the more important opinions and facts noticed in connection with this disease, he says—and I entirely agree with him—that the disease is as much the result as the cause of the bad health and unthrifty condition of many plantations throughout the country; and that the temporary debility which is induced by the conditions under which planting is conducted is largely responsible for a great deal of disease. He goes on to say that the practically permanent nature of the blister, when once established, renders the result of this temporary debility a much more serious matter than it otherwise would be. If the return to normal health and growth were accompanied by the disappearance of the disease, little harm would be done, but the existence of a blister, once established, is perpetuated indefinitely, and in most cases only ceases with that of its host, so that the occurrence of a blister on the stem of a young tree is much more serious than it would be on a branch or older stem. Cases commonly occur of the disappearance of the blisters when the trees recover health and vigour; and he mentions a plantation over twenty years old, more or less mixed with beech, on greensand, Where a mumiber of old blisters are gradually becoming occluded. That they were genuine blisters is evident from the remains of the Peziza cups still present, and the only possible theory respecting their disappearance must be found in the improved health of their host. I have frequently observed similar cases, both on my own land, where in some of the worst diseased plantations, individual trees, which on account of their greater vigour have taken a lead from the first, remain almost untouched and growing vigorously, when most of the surrounding trees are killed or severely injured; and also in Hertfordshire, where tall slender larch trees growing amongst beech showed at various points, from near the ground up to 50 or 60 feet, signs of repeated attacks, which had neither killed them nor apparently checked their growth materially. Forbes says that one may pick up dead twigs or branches under the largest, finest, and most isolated larches that can be found, and the fructifications of Peziza are invariably present on them. This fact he thinks is sufficient to prove that the mere existence of the fungus does not necessarily lead to diseased trees, using the term diseased in its practical sense.
The year 1879 will long be remembered by all gardeners, farmers, and landowners in the southern half of England as the most disastrous in its effects on plants, farm crops, and trees generally. There was practically no summer, and the rainfall was so continuous, that in late districts much of the corn never ripened at all, and being followed by two severe winters, the disease spread to a degree which ruined hundreds of acres of young larch on my own estate, and caused a loss which must have amounted to millions of pounds throughout the whole country. Though after bad seasons and in smaller areas there had been disease before, it was generally assumed by planters that larch might be successfully grown on almost any kind of land without mixture, and without any special precautions, and there is little doubt in my mind that a large percentage of the worst cases originated in that season, and may be directly traced to the exceptionally bad climatic conditions which prevailed.
Mr. A. M'Dougal, forester to the Earl of Feversham at Helmsley in Yorkshire, who has charge of something like 10,000 acres of woodland, and, having been brought up on the Duke of Atholl's estate, has had unusual experience of the larch, tells me that in Yorkshire the disease first began to be prevalent about 1862 when two plantations died clean off. Since then it has been very prevalent on thin red loam overlying limestone rock; and this applies as much to localities which have previously been under oak wood, or cultivation, as to those where larch has been replanted after larch. He considers that severe spring frosts, together with lowlying situations and heavy soil, are the conditions which bring on the disease most severely.
Sir W. Thiselton Dyer, who has been good enough to read this article, does not quite agree with me with regard to the disease, which he considers due to physical causes alone, and not influenced by heredity. He says that the fungus is a wound parasite, whose spores can only develop in lesions where the bark is injured either by frost, weight of snow, insect punctures, or otherwise, and that it is usually worst in sheltered hollows, where damp air lies and spring frosts are severely felt, and that on high situations facing north and east the disease rarely causes much injury.
All this I admit in full, but I am also convinced that, as the spores of the fungus are now so generally present everywhere, it is impossible to eradicate it, the only way by which it can be combated is by planting only on soils and in situations which experience has shown enable the tree to grow vigorously, and on poor and dry soils mixing it with hardwoods, the fall of whose leaves enriches the soil and keeps it cool and free from grass.
Heart-Rot in Larch.—Though sometimes confused with Peziza by careless observers, this is a totally different disease. C. M'Intosh[21] describes it very fully, and Hartig refers to it under the name of root-rot. Forbes believes, as I do, that it is the direct result of unsuitable soil, either too wet or too dry. It is most common on very poor limestone, sand, and chalk, but also occurs on clay and gravelly soils. In my experience it is especially noticeable where larch follows larch on soils containing insufficient nourishment, and can only be avoided by not planting larch where it is found to be prevalent. It usually attacks trees of about twenty years old, when they have got over their first period of vigorous growth and have practically exhausted the available sources of nutrition. According to Mr. Simmonds, late Deputy Surveyor of Windsor Forest, larch grown on what is called iron pan in that district gets red rot at the heart and is then said to be "pumped."
Larch Bug.—What is commonly known as larch aphis or larch bug is an insect called Chermes laricis. The life-history of this insect is at present somewhat obscure, some continental observers believing that it passes through an intermediate stage of existence on the spruce, as no males have yet been found on the larch, in which case it is evident that the insect cannot spread or become numerous unless spruce exists in the neighbourhood. But this is contested by Dreyfus, and I have observed that in England at any rate it multiplies exceedingly where no spruce are near. The females pass the winter under the bark, and are wingless, oval, of a purplishblack colour, and have a long bristle-like sucker through which they feed on the sap of the leaves. In spring they lay eggs which produce young, which grow rapidly, and are covered later by a whitish woolly down, and when numerous give the trees a whitish appearance. They increase rapidly by successive broods, and seriously weaken the constitution of the trees when young, rendering them especially liable to succumb to the attacks of Peziza, which often accompany and succeed them. Whenever I have seen bad attacks of the bug I have noticed that the Peziza is more than usually destructive, and it seems as though the climatic conditions which favour the one also favour the other. In the autumn the bark of the trees in a badly attacked plantation appeared quite black; and though this plantation was in a high situation, exposed to the east, and was heavily thinned the year afterwards, the greater part of the trees, which were thirteen years planted from Tyrolese seed, and had been growing vigorously at first, were so sickly on the thinner and drier parts of the land that many will not survive. In the nursery I have observed that some trees were practically immune, though growing side by side with others whose branches touched them and were covered with the Chermes; but having marked these trees and watched them after they were planted out, I have not as yet been able toraeetiS myself that this immunity is permanent. Though I have not found this insect attack Japanese, American, and Siberian larches at Colesborne as severely as the common species, yet I have seen it upon them all, both there and elsewhere. Blandford[22] says that washing the trees in April with a soft soap and paraffin mixture in hot water may prove effective, and suggests other forms of wash; yet it is evident that such remedies cannot be economically employed in plantations, and I know of no means of preventing the ravages of this insect; though thin planting, mixing with hardwoods, and the avoidance of thin dry soils and damp shady situations are undoubtedly the best means of avoiding severe injury from this pest, as well as Peziza.
Leaf-Miner of the Larch.[23]—The only other insect that I know of which causes serious injury to larch in this country is a small tineid moth, Coleophora laricella. This is extremely prevalent almost every year in some of my own plantations having a south-west aspect, and has been supposed by some authors to be directly connected with the attacks of Peziza, which usually accompany or succeed it. According to Stainton the larva is hatched in the autumn, and at first feeds as a miner inside the leaves, and at the approach of winter retires to the stem of the tree, where it passes the winter without feeding. In the spring as soon as the leaves appear it begins to work, and frequently becomes so numerous that most of the buds have several leaves injured. In May it is fully fed, and attaches the case which it has formed for itself from the leaves of the tree to a twig, and appears as a perfect insect in July. The tree is undoubtedly very much weakened by severe and repeated attacks, which render it more liable to die from Peziza, but as far as I know there is no practicable remedy for it in plantations.
A new enemy to the larch which has recently appeared in the north of England was described in the Journal of the Board of Agriculture in 1906, p. 375, and more fully in a paper by Mr. J. Smith Hill.[24] This is the larva of a sawfly, Nematus Erichsonii, Hartig, which was first noticed about 1904 by Mr. Cyril F. Watson, of Cockermouth, and which has done considerable damage in the Lake district of Cumberland by defoliating the larch. Mr. Gillanders has recently found the larva near Rothbury, and Mr. Forbes in Chopwell woods, but I have not heard of its appearance in the south of England.
I am informed by Mr. R.D. Marshall, of Castlerigg Manor, that he has known periodical visitations of the same insect for several years, and that, owing to the late period of the season at which the larva appears, the trees have not suffered as seriously as they would if attacked earlier. He states that the plantation alluded to by Mr. Smith Hill first suffered from this cause as much as forty years ago, and has survived the attack in three consecutive years recently. It was noticed that during these 
Plate 98.
LARCHES IN OAKLEY PARK
Remarkable Trees
To enumerate all the larches which are remarkable for their size and age in Great Britain would be impossible, as in almost all places of sufficient age or importance this was one of the first exotic conifers to be planted, but it will suffice to say that many still exist in a sound condition which are 150 years or more old and exceed 100 feet in height. The tallest trees I have ever heard of were felled about the year 1890 in a deep valley near Croft Castle, Herefordshire, the seat of Capt. H. Kevill Davies, which I visited in 1904 under the guidance of Mr. Openshaw, who assured me that some trees there were 135 feet long at the point at which the tops were cut off, with a diameter of 6 inches. This was confirmed by the woodman on the estate, H. Prince, who estimated the tops to have been 10 to 15 feet long, making the trees nearly if not quite 150 feet high.[25] The soil is Old Red Sandstone and the situation very sheltered. I have a record of a tree measuring 134 feet by 1o feet 8 inches which grew in Yorkshire on Lord Masham's estate, and at Penrhyn Castle, North Wales, Henry measured a tree 118 feet by 7 feet 10 inches, and I saw another at the same place growing in a low, very wet, almost swampy situation very near the sea among hardwoods which was about go feet by 12 feet, and judging from the rings of felled trees lying near it was about 130 years old. This is remarkable from the fact of the conditions of growth being so extremely unlike those which are usually considered natural to and suitable for the larch, and I can only explain them by the fact that the natural drainage was better than it seemed. Certainly I would not expect larch now planted in such situations to escape disease.
At Ombersley Court, Worcestershire, the seat of Lord Sandys, a tree is growing on the lawn in deep red loam, which exceeds in girth any larch that I know of in England. It is no less than 15 feet 7 inches at five feet from the ground, though it falls away rapidly higher up, and is only about 80 feet high, and has very large and wide-spreading branches.
At Stoneleigh Abbey, Warwickshire, the seat of Lord Leigh, there are some very large and picturesque larches, near the park-keeper's house, which look as old as any in England. One of them, measuring 14 feet 8 inches in girth, has a mass of rugged branches, some of which touch the ground, where they seem to have taken root. Another is about 80 feet by 14 feet. In the grounds of Warwick Castle there is a group of seven ancient larches, as well as one in the castle yard whose top curves into a drooping form.
In Gloucestershire there are many fine trees of this species on the Cotswold hills, among which may be mentioned two near the Woodhouse in Earl Bathurst's woods (Plate 98). These are growing on dry and rather shallow soil, overlying Oolite rock, and are over 100 feet high by 11 feet and 12 feet in girth respectively. They seem to have been drawn up by surrounding trees, though now open on one side: and the fine trees beside them are Lawson Cypress, about fifty years old. At Sherborne House, the seat of Lord Sherborne, is a fine group of six old larches on the lawn, planted in a circle of very small diameter, which seed freely, and from which I have raised good plants. They are remarkable for their symmetry and equality rather than for their great size (Plate 99). At Mickleton Manor I measured in 1903 a very curious larch, 104 feet in girth, but of no great height, whose branches spread to a distance of over twenty yards from the trunk. Plate 100 shows the tallest larches which I have measured myself in England, growing on a very dry, stony bank, composed of Oolite gravel, at Lyde, near Colesborne. These have no doubt been drawn up by the surrounding beeches to their great height, which exceeds 120 feet, the tallest, whose top is now dying, was, when measured in 1903, about 125 feet; but their girth is only 7 to 8 feet. They are remarkable from the fact that a part at least of their roots is under water, and must derive some part of their nourishment from the decaying beech leaves which accumulate there, as the trees higher up the bank are not nearly so large.
The tallest larch mentioned by Loudon in England was at Strathfieldsaye, where one was recorded as being 130 feet high by 3 feet 6 inches in diameter; but none over 80 feet were reported at the Conifer Conference in 1891. At Eridge Park, Kent, are some very fine larch trees growing on sandy soil, in what seems a damp situation below sandstone rocks, which average well over 100 feet in height, and one which I measured was 115 feet by only 5 feet 3 inches, a very unusual proportion of height to girth, Mr. R. Anderson has heard of a tree which was felled near Moorhampton which contained 356 cubic feet as measured over bark on the railway, and trees of over 200 cubic feet were not uncommon near this place. At Savernake House, Wilts, he has measured a tree 12 feet in girth, and tells me that the growth on this estate is sometimes so rapid that eight or nine rings may be found together with an average width of half an inch.
In the north-western counties there are, or have been, many very fine larches. Sir Maurice Bromley Wilson tells me of two on the shores of Windermere, which he thinks are the largest in the Lake district; but the best I have seen myself are at Greystoke Castle, the seat of the Howards of Greystoke, where Lady Mabel Howard showed me a tree in a plantation near the castle called John-by-Park, which is believed to have been planted by Charles, eleventh Duke of Norfolk, about 130 years ago, and which measured 11 feet 10 inches at 5 feet from the ground, and contains about 230 cubic feet. There are also two trees, taller but not so thick as the one at Greystoke, in the sunken garden at Lowther Castle in the same district.
In Wales the larch has been planted as extensively as in England on most of the large estates, and as a rule grows as well as, or better than, in England up to 800 or 1000 feet above the sea. Among the most remarkable trees are two at Chirk Castle, Denbighshire, the seat of R. Myddelton, Esq., one of which measures 74 feet by 13 feet 5 inches, and has very wide-spreading branches. The other forks low down and is 12½ feet in girth, At Maesllwch Castle, Radnorshire, the seat of 
Plate 99.
LARCHES AT SHERBORNE, GLOUCESTERSHIRE
Plate 100.
LARCHES AT COLESBORNE
Plate 101.
CHAMPION LARCH AT TAYMOUTH
Plate 102.
FORKED LARCH AT TAYMOUTH
Plate 103.
MOTHER LARCH AT DUNKELD
In Scotland the number of larches remarkable for their size is so great that it is not easy to make a selection, almost every large estate, especially in the Highlands, having splendid trees of great age. So far as I can learn, the trees on Drummond Hill, near Taymouth Castle, the Perthshire seat of the Marquis of Breadalbane, are actually the largest in Great Britain. I visited this place in April 1904 and carefully measured the best trees myself. They are growing on the slope of a hill facing south in good open loamy soil, overlying rock, from which, in some places, springs of water rise; and seem to owe their immense size in part to the fact of their having been mixed with beech and oak, which were planted at or about the same time, and which they have far surpassed in height. The finest tree is figured in Plate 101, and is about 115 feet in height by 17 in girth. It carries its bulk very well up to at least fifty feet, where some large branches go off, and contains, according to Mr. Peter Mackay, the forester, over 500 feet of timber. I estimated the first length alone at 450 feet, the next at 100 feet, and the top and branches at about 50 feet more, so that this tree must contain nearer 600 than 500 cubic feet. In November 1893 a tree near it on the same hill was blown down, and the butt, which was sold, weighed ten tons on the railway, or about 500 cubic feet, besides which three tons more were cut up on the estate. Near it is a tree (Plate 102) remarkable for being divided at about 20 feet up into four large upright stems, a rare occurrence in this species. It is nearly the same height and girth as the first, and may contain as much timber. A third, as measured by the forester, has a bole of only 6 feet long, girthing at 1 foot from the ground no less than 24 feet, and at 5 feet 17 feet 9 inches; it divides into two huge trunks over 100 feet high. These trees are believed to be from 160 to 180 years old, and were probably planted as early as those at Dunkeld.
The next largest and probably the best known larches in Scotland are the so-called Mother Larches, which stand close to the ruins of the Cathedral at Dunkeld (Plate 103), and which were planted, according to the inscription on a stone slab in the wall close by, in 1738 by James, third Duke of Atholl, who, according to Hunter, obtained them from Mr. Menzies of Culdares, who brought a few small plants from the Tyrol in his portmanteau; but in an account of the larch plantations on the estates of Atholl and Dunkeld, published in the Transactzons of the Highland Society (vol. v.), which is largely quoted by Loudon, it is said that Mr. Menzies of Migenny was the introducer, and Walker[27] gives 1727 as the date of their introduction. When measured in 1831, Loudon says that the largest was 100 feet by 10 feet 6 inches at 5 feet from the ground. In 1888, according to the tablet mentioned above, it was 102 feet high, and girthed at 3 feet 17 feet 2 inches, at 5 feet 15 feet 1 inch, at 17 feet 12 feet 10½ inches, at 51 feet 8 feet 8 inches, and at 68 feet 6 feet 1 inch, the estimated contents being 532 cubic feet. When measured by Mr. Keir, forester to the Duke, in 1899 it was 15 feet 6 inches in girth; and I made it in 1904 15 feet 8 inches and 100 feet high; so it is still growing and vigorous, though the smaller tree beside it has lost most of its top and many of its branches.[28] There are many other fine larches on this estate, of which the largest perhaps, on the Kennel Bank at Dunkeld, is 120 to 125 feet high by 11 feet 10 inches in girth, with sound top and clean bole to 50 to 60 feet, containing about 350 feet of timber. Three trees of the same age as the Mother Larches are growing near the Castle at Blair Atholl, but are not nearly as large or well shaped.
At Gordon Castle there are some fine larches, one of which, growing in a plantation called Cotton Hill, exposed to the full blast of the North Sea, is figured on account of its remarkable trunk (Plate 104). An immense limb comes off close to the ground, where the trunk girths 20 feet 6 inches, and at about 5 feet, where the tape is seen in the plate, it is 11 feet in diameter. The branches spread to at least 15 yards on each side and measured 198 feet in circumference, and the tree in April 1904 was covered with fine cones, which were beginning to shed their seed, and from which I have raised some plants.
At Monzie Castle, near Crieft, are some splendid larches of the same age and origin as those at Dunkeld, of which the largest, according to Hunter, was 100 feet by 16 feet 3 inches, and contained about 380 feet of timber when he wrote in 1883. I have not seen these trees myself, but Henry measured the largest in 1904 as 109 feet by 17 feet 4 inches, and describes them as very beautiful trees with immense pendent branches in full health and vigour. Hunter says that John, fourth Duke of Atholl, called "the Planting Duke," because he is said to have planted over 10,000 acres of larch, considered them to be the only rivals to the Mother Larches at Dunkeld, and sent his gardener every year to report on their progress. They are figured by Michie on p. 205.
At Inveraray there are some very fine larches on the level ground near the Castle. The best that I measured was about 110 feet by 11 feet, but there may be taller ones;[29] none approached the silver firs in the same locality in height or girth. They serve to show, however, that the larch will succeed well in a climate as unlike that of its native mountains as it is possible to find in Scotland, provided the soil is good and there is shelter from the west wind.
Plate 104.
FORKED LARCH AT GORDON CASTLE
There are very tall and large larches at Brahan Castle and elsewhere in East Ross, one of which was reported by Mr. Pitcaithley[30] as being 115 feet by 11 feet. Mr. Munro-Ferguson tells me that a very large larch was recently felled on his property at Novar; and his factor, Mr. Meiklejohn, sends me the following measurements:—at 5 feet from the ground 12 feet 8 inches, at 25 feet 10 feet, at 40 feet 9 feet 4 inches. The cubic contents of the trunk were 4oo feet, and the branches probably contained 50 more.
The highest elevation which I found recorded for the larch in Scotland is in the Ballochbuie forest, where three larches of great size were reported, in 1860, to be in a sound condition at 117 years old and 1110 feet above the sea.
Michie[31] gives a long account of some fine larches growing in the Paradise at Monymusk, in Aberdeenshire, with details of their measurements; the largest in 1881 was 100 feet by 10 feet 5 inches at 20 feet from the ground, and was supposed to contain 416 cubic feet.
A remarkable instance of the manner in which the roots of the larch may continue to grow after the tree has been cut is described and figured in Gardeners' Chronicle[32] from a specimen submitted by the late Mr. Webster, head gardener at Gordon Castle. The figure shows the felled stump, rotten in the centre, and with the new wood surging over the edges of the wound, and also two roots of the foster tree, inosculating by means of various branches with those of the stump.
The larch has been extensively planted in Ireland, and has given, when grown on ordinary soils, excellent results, as it has usually remained free from disease. As an instance of good growth, Mr. Mitchell, land-agent at Doneraile and an experienced forester, told Henry that many trees cut in 1891 in a plantation on the Kilworth property in Co. Cork must have been 135 feet in height, as he measured them lying on the ground 120 feet to the small end, where they had been cut off at 6 inches diameter. There are still trees as large growing on the same property. Attempts have been made to plant pure larch on peat-bogs; but even when the bogs have been welldrained and good soil has been added to the pits at the time of planting, the trees have not grown. In such cases a preliminary plantation of Scots pine, or in localities with a mild climate the maritime pine, will prepare the bog for larch, which after a few years can be planted in amongst the pines. The conditions for success in bog-planting are delicate, depending apparently on moderate drainage, as when the bogs are quite dry the trees are starved for want of water, and when they are too wet, trees will hardly grow at all. Mr. Richards, forester at Penrhyn, who has had great experience, is confident that good larch can be grown on peat-bogs; and isolated trees doing well on peat have been seen by Henry in various parts of Ireland. Experiments with larch and various mixtures of trees that will grow easily on bogs should be attempted. The American larch has never been tried, and possibly might succeed better than the common species, as it is a swamp-loving tree.
The most remarkable old larches in Ireland are at Doneraile Court in Cork, the seat of Lord Castletown. The history of these trees, which were seen by Henry in February 1907, is obscure, but there is a tradition that they were sent in the eighteenth century to Doneraile by the Duke of Atholl. Five trees out of six originally planted now remain, all of peculiar habit, with numerous more or less weeping branches, the lowermost of which spread over the ground to a great distance, and in one tree are Jayering. This tree is about 70 feet high, and is 12 feet 7 inches in girth at 5 feet from the ground, the base of the tree below 4 feet being much swollen and covered with very thick bark, like that of old trees in the Alps. On one side the branches spread to 70 feet distance, and on the other side, where there was less room on account of other trees, to 30 feet. Another tree, 10 feet 10 inches in girth, has a spread of 91 feet in diameter. None of them attain more than a moderate height, which is difficult to explain, as ordinary larch grows very tall in the neighbourhood. From the seed of the old trees, sown in 1890, plants were raised, which were put out in 1893 on a hillside, seven acres in extent, and with good soil. This small plantation is now remarkably healthy, though the trees are very dense on the ground, and, at seventeen years old from seed, they average 37 feet in height and 20 inches in girth.
At Carton Park, the seat of the Duke of Leinster, there is a curious tree with the trunk inclined and pendulous branches, which was in 1903 60 feet high and 9 feet in girth. It is considered to be one of the original importations from Scotland in the 18th century. A fine tree in the same place with a Straight stem measured 98 feet by 10½ feet. At Abbeyleix House, the seat of Viscount de Vesci, a tree is growing on the lawn similar to those at Doneraile in having weeping branches, some of which are layering. At Dartrey Castle, Co. Monaghan, the seat of the Earl of Dartrey, there are three very old trees, also with more or less pendent branches, which were in 1903 13 feet 10 inches, 13 feet 8 inches, and 11 feet 7 inches in girth respectively. At Emo Park, Queen's 
Plate 105.
LARCH IN THE ALPS
Larch in the Alps
In its native home the larch loves a dry cold winter climate, where the snow lies from December to April or May, and at the higher elevations does not begin to vegetate before the end of the latter month. It is not very particular as to the geological character of the soil provided that the rock is sufficiently disintegrated for the roots to penetrate and there is a fair amount of soil in which the seeds can germinate, and as a rule natural reproduction is fairly regular and abundant. It is not often allowed to attain its full age, which may be 150 to 300 years or more, on account of the value of its timber for building and other purposes.
As to the size it attains in its native home I have few exact particulars. The largest that I have measured myself was near Modane, in the forest de Villarodin, at 4500 feet elevation, growing on schist with a north aspect. This tree, said to be the largest in the district, was about 90 feet high by 16 feet in girth, but tapered rapidly, and would not contain more than about 200 feet of timber.
By far the finest specimen of the larch in the Alps is figured in Plate 105, made from a negative which was very kindly lent me by M. Coaz, Chief Forest Inspector of the Swiss Forest Department, and which is described in Les Arbres de la Suisse[33] as follows:—
"The larch of Blitzlingen grows opposite the little village of this name in the district of Conches in the upper Valais at an elevation of 1350 metres. At the foot of a slope facing north-west, on a narrow terrace this tree grows in a deep and fresh loam, rich in humus, and overlying gneiss rock. There it has become one of the largest in Switzerland, and measures at its base 8 metres 70 cent., and at 1½ metre is still 7½ metres in girth. Its branches extend 1o metres from the trunk. Its top is dead, and thus it is only 29 metres high. Strongly attacked by decay, its trunk does not allow its age to be exactly determined, but no one can accuse us of exaggeration if we estimate it at about five centuries."
According to Dr. L. Klein, who gives an excellent account of the larch,[34] it sometimes attains in the Alps an age of 600 to 700 years. Some stumps which he saw in the so-called Park of Saas-Fee, in the canton of Valais, showed that number of rings, but these trees did not exceed from 1 to 1½ metre in diameter. Dr, Klein counted on a sawn stump near the Findelen glacier 417 annual rings in a diameter of 85 centimetres. He gives several excellent illustrations of Alpine larches taken near the Riffel Alp, one of which shows a tree forking close to the ground into four stems, and another a so-called Candelabra larch with branches rising parallel to the main stem.
Larch in Other Countries
In Norway, so far as I have seen, the larch does not grow well on the coast, though there are fine trees 70 to 80 feet high at a farm called Kjostad near Trondheim, and in the interior and farther south. Schübeler tells us that it has been successfully grown as a forest tree, especially at Brandvold, in the Glommen valley, where trees planted in 1803 had attained in 1878, according to Forstmeister Mejdele, from 70 to 95 feet high, the largest having a diameter of 14 inches at 58 feet from the ground. A very large tree said to be 150 years old existed in 1866 near Gothenburg in Sweden.
The larch is one of the few European trees which appears to grow really well in New England. The following instances of its success are recorded in Garden and Forest:—vol. ii. p. 9, an acre of larch planted in 1877 by Mr. T.H. Lawrence of Falmouth, Mass., on gravelly soil, in an exposed situation, a mile from the coast, was awarded a prize in 1888, when the trees formed a regular and complete cover on the ground, and many of them were over 25 feet high; vol. iv. p. 538, records the success of a plantation made by Mr. J. Russell at East Greenwich, Rhode Island, with 100 small seedlings costing one dollar, which were planted in 1879, and in 1891 were 20 to 27 feet high. Here the larch has been planted alternately with the native Pinus Strobus, to which they form an excellent nurse. In 1896 Sargent (vol. ix. p. 491) speaks of it as a tree likely to produce valuable timber in the northern states; but in Virginia, on the lower Chesapeake river, the climate is too wet and hot for it, and the trees did not thrive (vol. i. p. 500).
European larch has been tried in various places in the Himalaya, but not with much success, those at Manáli, in Kulu, being apparently the most successful; in 1881 young trees four years old were 6 feet high.
Timber
The value of larch timber for all purposes where durability and strength are required has been so well known for so many years past and is so fully dealt with by Loudon, Michie, "Acorn," and many other writers that I need not say very much about it. There is no home-grown timber so generally used on estates for building and fencing, and though its price has fallen considerably of late years on account of the increasing competition of foreign timber, it is likely to remain in demand, and is easier to market at all ages than almost any timber except ash.
The only country from which larch timber is at present imported or from which any possible supplies can come in future is the north of Russia, and this at present is not used to any great extent; but shipbuilders, collieries, and railway companies are not buying home-grown larch so freely as they used to do except in districts where it can be procured close at hand.
For long telephone poles, for bridge-building and other purposes where lengths of 50 feet and upwards are required, heavy larch poles exceeding 50 cubic feet fetch prices of from 1s. 2d. to 1s. 4d. a foot standing, and cannot always be procured when wanted. But the greater strength and durability of the red heartwood in trees of great age does not command the increased price which it ought to be worth, and it is often best to keep this for private use and sell the smaller and younger trees, whose timber cannot be expected to last as long. For trees of 30 to 50 cubic feet rs. per foot and upwards, if not too far from a railway, is about the present price. For trees of 15 to 30 cubic feet 9d. to. 1s. should be realised, and for small thinnings the price fluctuates according to the local demand for fencing, hop-poles, and pit-timber.
On account of the durability of larch wood under water, it is specially adapted for piles, wharves, and groins; but owing to its propensity to warp and twist and the difficulty of sawing, planing, and jointing it in comparison with most other coniferous woods, it is seldom used for inside work. It makes very handsome panelling, however, if the red heartwood is carefully selected and seasoned, and is preferred to all other woods in its native Alps for building log-houses, which in some cases are known to have remained sound for 400 years.
The Duke of Atholl informs me that the larch used in the construction of the stables at Dunkeld in 1809 appears to be still quite sound; and I saw at Blair Castle a handsome table 5 feet in diameter made from a transverse section, laid as veneer, of a larch grown on the property, which shows eighty-seven annual rings. In the museum at Innsbruck I saw a very handsome antique chest made from very dark-coloured larch wood, which had been dug out of the ground, akin to bog oak in character; and the wood is used in conjunction with that of Pinus Cembra for making artistic furniture by Messrs. Colli Brothers of Innsbruck.
For ship- and boat-building it was at one time much more used than at present, and knees cut from its roots are at least as strong and durable, if not more so, than oak knees.
The bark, though used to some extent for tanning, is now seldom worth stripping except in the case of large trees felled in the spring, when, if taken off in large slabs, it makes a very durable covering for summer-houses, sheds, and other rustic buildings.
Venice turpentine is a resinous product of the larch formerly much valued in medicine and surgery, and for making varnish, of the production of which Loudon gives ample details; but like so many similar products, it has gone out of use in this country at least, but is still sold in Venice, where I procured a sample of it. Manna of Briançon is a saccharine exudation from the leaves of the tree in the form of small white opaque grains which formerly had some repute in medicine. (H.J.E.)
LARIX SIBIRICA, Russian Larch
- Larix sibirica, Ledebour, Fl. Alt. iv. 204 (1833); Willkomm, Forstliche Flora, 153 (1887); Kent, Veitch's Man. Coniferæ, 402 (1900); Mayr, Fremdländ. Wald- u. Parkbäume, 311 (1906).
- Larix intermedia, Lawson, Agric. Man. 389 (1836); Turczaninow, Bull. Soc. Nat. Mosc. xi, 101 (1838).
- Larix archangelica, Lawson, loc. cit.
- Larix europæa, De Candolle, var. sibirica, Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iv. 2352 (1838).
- Larix rossica, Sabine, ex Loudon, Encyl. Trees, 1054 (1842); Trautvetter, Act. Hort. Petrop, ix. 211 (1884).
- Larix altaica, Nelson (Senilis), Pinaceæ, 84 (1866).
- Larix decidua, Miller, vars. sibirica and rossica; Regel, Gartenflora, xx. 101, t. 684, ff. 1, 2, and 4 (1871).
- Pinus intermedia, Fischer, Scht. Anz. Entdeck. Phys. Chem. Nat. et Techn. viii. 3. Heft. (1831). (Not Wangenheim.)
- Pinus Ledebourii, Endlicher, Syn. Conif. 131 (1847).
- Abies Ledebourii, Ruprecht,[35] Beit. Pflanz. Russ. Reich. ii. 56 (1845).
A tree attaining in Siberia over 100 feet in height and 9 to 12 feet in girth. Bark resembling that of the European larch. Young branchlets slender; in specimens from the Ural mountains and Tobolsk, pubescent with long hairs in the furrows between the pulvini; in specimens from the Altai, glabrous; girt at the base by a sheath of the previous season's bud-scales, within which a ring of pubescence is visible. Branchlets of the second year glabrous, greyish-yellow, shining. Terminal buds broadly conical, resinous, with ciliate scales. Lateral buds hemispherical, dark brown, resinous. Apical buds of the short shoots broadly conical, girt at the base by a dense ring of pubescence. Leaves soft in texture, very long and slender, up to 2 inches in length, narrower than in L. europæa, sharp-pointed, agreeing with that species in the arrangement of the stomata, but more deeply keeled on the lower surface. Staminate flowers as in the European larch, Pistillate flowers according to Willkomm, ovoid, pale green. Cones, when unopened, cylindrical, with the terminal scales not gaping and the bracts quite concealed; variable in size, up to 14 inch long, composed of five spiral rows of scales, five to six scales in each row. Scales convex from side to side and also from the base to the apex, quadrangular, about as long as broad ( inch); upper margin rounded or truncate, thin, entire, not bevelled, inflected; outer surface finely striate, covered with a reddish-brown pubescence, which is most marked towards the base of the scale. Bract ovate or oblong with a cuspidate point, extending about one-third the height of the scale. Seeds lying on the scale in shallow depressions, with their wings widely divergent and not extending to its upper and outer margin. Seed 1⁄6 inch long; with its wing 1⁄2 to 5⁄8 inch long; wing about 1⁄5 inch in width, broadest about the middle.
This species is amply distinct from L. europæa, differing in the long and slender leaves, which appear about ten days earlier in the spring; and in the cones, which have fewer and differently shaped scales and short concealed bracts. In the Siberian larch the scales are convex both laterally and longitudinally, whereas in the European larch they are flattened longitudinally. The seeds, moreover, of the former have longer and differently shaped wings, and do not cover the scales of the cone up to their margin as is the case in the latter.
Varieties
In wild specimens both pubescent and glabrous branchlets occur. Cones from a tree, cultivated in the Botanic Garden at St. Petersburg, differ in being narrowly cylindrical, with oblong scales only half the width of wild specimens; and the bracts are also much narrower. The seeds, however, lie on the scales as in wild specimens; and the scales have the convex form and inflected upper margin of typical L. sibirica.
A supposed variety, rossica, occurring in northern Russia, was distinguished by Regel as having small cones; but as Beissner informs me in a letter, it was subsequently abandoned by Regel, and is now not noticed by Willkomm or by any Russian botanist. Sir C. Wolseley, Bart., vice-consul at Archangel, has kindly sent me excellent fruiting specimens from Archangel, which differ in no respect from the Ural larch.
Distribution
The Siberian larch has an extremely wide distribution, occurring in northeastern Russia and throughout a great part of Siberia.
In European Russia it occurs wild in the governments of Archangel, Vologda, Viatka, Perm, and Orenburg. According to Korshinsky,[36] it grows rather sparingly in the plains of northern Russia, as isolated trees in the pine forests; whereas on the mountains of the Ural chain and its branches it forms extremely large forests, sometimes pure, and sometimes mixed with pine and spruce. Its exact distribution is differently stated by various Russian authorities. Herder[37] adds to the preceding provinces Ufa, Olonetz, eastern Finland, and the northern parts of Kostroma and of Nijni-Novgorod. Ruprecht[38] states that it commences to grow in the northern part of the government of Olonetz beyond the city of Kargopol, from whence extensive woods of it stretch to the Ness river in the Kanin peninsula. In this peninsula it attains its most northerly point in Europe, on the Arctic circle. Further east its distribution sinks to the southward, and its most northerly point on the Ural range is about 58° latitude.
Its distribution in Siberia is not yet clearly known, as it has been confused with Larix dahurica. It would appear to be the species common in middle and southern Siberia west of Lake Baikal, while Larix dahurica apparently occupies eastern Siberia and Manchuria, a close ally of it, Larix Cajanderi, occurring in the extreme north in the lower part of the valley of the Lena, north of lat. 63°. Larix sibirica is reported from Olga Bay in Manchuria, but this requires confirmation; and it has been supposed to occur in Mongolia and north China; but Maye has recently described the North China larch as a new species—Larix Principis Rupprechtii. In Siberia its most northerly limit is lat. 69° on the Yenesei and Kolyma, its southern limit extending from the Ural at lat. 54° to the Altai in lat. 52°.
The Siberian larch was reported by Kanitz[39] to occur as a shrub in upper and middle Moldavia at about 6000 feet elevation. He identified it on the authority of Parlatore in a letter. I have seen no specimens from this locality, and consider the identification very doubtful.[40] (A.H.)
An excellent account is given by Mayr[41] of a plantation of this tree which was made in 1750-1760 for the Czarina Elizabeth at Raivola on the Russian-Finnish frontier north of St. Petersburg. The seed was procured from Ufa, and the trees have on the better land grown remarkably straight and clean without branches for 20 metres up, and attain 4o metres in height with a diameter of 70 centimetres. The wood of these trees, which was shown at the Paris exhibition of 1900, was of remarkably good quality, and Prof. Mayr recommends this tree strongly for cultivation. But as summer does not commence in Finland until June, and the trees had already turned yellow on September 18th, it is probable that the species is not unlikely to succeed in Great Britain except perhaps in elevated districts in the north and east of Scotland.
On my journey to Siberia in 1897 I saw larches in the Ural mountains near Zlataoust, but only after passing the watershed into Asia, and these were of no great size. In the Altai they first appeared at about 3000 feet, and at 4000 feet they became more numerous and larger, some of them 3 feet to 4 feet in diameter and about 100 feet high, but nearly all were dead at the top, and not yet in full leaf on 7th June. They grow scattered in open forest on the drier hillsides as well as on marshy flats, and where the soil is damper are often mixed with Picea obovata.
Farther to the south in the upper valleys of the Katuna and Tchuya the larch became the prevalent tree, and extends to a higher elevation than any other, following the banks of the mountain streams on the Mongolian frontier up to about 7500 feet. At this elevation I saw a grove of young larches from 8 to 15 feet high, and cut one of the smallest to count the rings, of which there were twenty-five in a diameter of only 1½ inch. Some of the old trees were remarkably stunted, only 10 to 12 feet high and 5 feet to 6 feet in girth. In this region the climate is extremely severe, frost and snow occurring even in July. The bark of the tree is used all over the region where it grows for covering the winter huts of the nomad Tartars, which are in shape and construction very like the lodges of the Indians in Montana.
Cultivation
It was introduced by the Duke of Atholl in 1806 from Archangel, as stated in the fourth volume of the Transactions of the Horticultural Society, p. 416, and was described as follows:—"The bark quite cinereous, not of a yellowish-brown colour, and not distinctly scarred as in the common larch, but, on the contrary, the vestiges of the scars are scarcely visible; the leaves come out so soon that they are liable to be injured by spring frosts, and what is remarkable, the female flowers are not produced till some time after those of the European larch appear; they are like those of Pinus (Larix) microcarpa. Mr. Sabine has a plant of this sort in his garden at North Mimms, which he received under the name of Larix sibirica from Messrs. Loddiges, who obtained the seed originally from Professor Pallas, whose Pinus Larix it probably is. He contrasts the cinereous bark of his plant with the pale brown colour of the common larch; it may probably prove to be a distinct species." So far as I can learn no trees of this introduction are now living at Dunkeld.
Large quantities of seed were procured by Messrs. Little and Ballantyne of Carlisle, and raised in their nurseries about eight years ago, but the trees from them have generally been a complete failure owing to the very early bursting of their leaf-buds.
I received in 1902, from the Tula Government, through Professor Fischer de Waldheim, some seed of the Siberian larch, and a few of the seedlings look rather more promising than those from North Russia; but we are not aware that any fairsized tree of this species now exists in England.
In December 1902 I received seed of this tree from Herr E. Rodd, which was gathered in the Ouimon valley in the Altai mountains early in September, but he tells me that it is not naturally shed there until spring. This seed germinated, but the plants raised from it are small and unhealthy, and vegetate very early in the spring, so that they seem likely to grow as badly in this climate as the larch from the Ural.
In England, as a forest tree this species seems likely to be worthless, for it opens its leaves so early, and suffers so much from spring frost, that with few exceptions the young trees I have grown are unhealthy, and many have already died, though planted in a very cold and exposed situation.
In the north of Norway I saw it growing at the Government nurseries in Saltdalen in 1903 from Russian seed sown in 1882. Trees only 15 feet high were already bearing cones, but were much healthier and more vigorous than the common larch; and in the Botanic Garden at Christiania I noticed that though growing at the rate of a foot annually, the leaves were attacked by a Chermes like C. laricis.
Timber
The tree is common in the north of Russia, where it forms a large part of the forests on the east side of the White Sea; and in the valley of the Petchora, seems to attain very large dimensions. Seebohm[42] says that Alexievka at the mouth of this river is the shipping port of the Petchora Timber Company, where ships are loaded with larch for Cronstadt. "The larch is felled in the forests 500 or 600 miles up the river, and roughly squared into logs varying from 2 to 3 feet in diameter. It is floated down in enormous rafts, the logs being bound together with willows and hazel boughs. These rafts are manned by a large crew, many of whom bring their wives with them to cook for the party, sleeping huts are erected on the raft, and it becomes to all intents and purposes a little floating village, which is frequently three months in making the voyage down the river."
This larch is now shipped to London in some quantity for various purposes, and has been considerably used for piles in the Dover harbour works, and elsewhere. Mr. D.J. Morgan of Morgan Gellibrand and Company informs me that it is one of the most durable timbers that can be used, but so hard that when it is being sawn water is poured on the saw to keep it from heating, and this is probably the reason why it is not much used in England. He informs me that all the lighters at Onega were built of larch timbers, which lasted a very long time, and that when an old house at Archangel, which had been built on a foundation of larch logs, was pulled down, they were found to be quite sound after lying on the ground for possibly a hundred years. The experiments which have been made with it in the quays at the Surrey Commercial Docks, where the wood was continually wet and dry, have proved the lasting power of this wood, which, from what I have seen of it, is much closer in the grain than English-grown larch. But Mr. G. Cartwright, engineer of the Grimsby Docks, tells me that though he has no actual personal experience of its use, it is considered inferior to the best English larch, as indeed its lower price would imply, and inferior in strength and durability under water to English oak, greenheart, jarrah, or even to Danzig red fir, and that for constructional purposes he would consider its value less than half that of large oak.
Messrs. Crundall and Company of Dover inform me that Messrs. Pearson and Sons have used a large quantity of larch deals for their block moulds, and for other purposes where much wear and rough usage is entailed, and the wood has given entire satisfaction. I purchased from Messrs. Howard Bros. and Company of London a long clean log of this tree, from north Russia, in order to compare it with that of home-grown larch, and find the wood is very slowly grown, there being fifteen rings in an inch of radius. The heartwood is less red and apparently much less resinous than that of the European larch. My carpenter reports that when free from knots it works as well as some red deal, and he considers it very well suited for the roofs of plant houses. Its present value is from £11 to £13 per standard. (H.J.E.)
LARIX DAHURICA
- Larix dahurica, Turczaninow, Bull. Soc. Nat. Mosc. xi. 101 (1838); Trautvetter, Pl. Imag. Fl. Russ. 48, t. 32 (1844); Regel, Gartenflora, xx. 105, t. 684 (1871); Kent, Veitch's Man. Coniferæ, 390 (1900).
- Larix pendula, Salisbury,[43] Trans. Linn. Soc. viii. 314 (1807); Lawson, Agric. Man. 387 (1836); Forbes, Pinet. Woburnense, 137, t. 46 (1839).
- Larix europæa, De Candolle, var. dahurica, Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iv. 2352 (1838).
- Larix americana, Michaux, var. pendula, Loudon, op. cit. 2400.
- Pinus pendula, Aiton, Hort. Kew. iii. 369 (1789); Lambert, Pinus, i. 56, t. 36 (1803).
- Pinus dahurica, Fischer, ex Turczaninow, loc. cit.
- Abies pendula, Poiret, Lamarck's Dict. vi. 514 (1804).
- Abies Gmelini, Ruprecht, Beit. Pflanz. Russ. Reich. ii. 56 (1845).
A tree attaining in Saghalien 140 feet to 150 feet in height, but in Siberia usually much smaller. Bark scaling in broad, thin, irregularly quadrangular plates. Young branchlets slender, glabrous, becoming pinkish at the end of the season, shining brown in the second year; older branchlets yellowish grey. Shoots girt at the base by a sheath of the previous season's bud-scales, with no ring of pubescence visible. Short shoots slender, dark brown or blackish, glabrous. Terminal buds globose, glabrous, resinous, with the basal scales subulately pointed. Lateral buds hemispherical, resinous, dark brown, glabrous. Apical buds broadly conical and surrounded by a ring of brown pubescence. Leaves light green, similar to those of L. europæa in size and arrangement of the stomata, with the tips usually blunter than in that species.
Staminate flowers sessile, smaller than those of the European larch. Pistillate flowers ovoid, red, with the bracts and scales more closely appressed than in the common larch, making the flower narrower and shorter; bracts slightly recurved, 4 inch long, oblong, with a shallow notch at the upper margin between two pointed projections; mucro short, less than 1⁄12 inch long.
Cones variable in size, dependent upon the number of the scales, 3⁄4 to 11⁄4 inch long, cylindrical, slightly narrowed at the apex, where the scales gape open in the ripe cone, composed of three to four spiral rows of scales, six to eight in each row, bracts concealed. Scales longer than broad, about 1⁄2 inch long; upper margin rounded, truncate, or slightly emarginate, bevelled, slightly denticulate, not recurved; outer surface glabrous,[44] channelled, shining light brown when ripe. Bracts not exserted, about 1⁄5 inch long, much shorter than the scales. Seeds lying upon the scale in slight depressions, their wings narrowly divergent and not extending quite to its upper margin. Seed about 1⁄6 inch long; together with its wing scarcely 1⁄2 inch long; wing broadest just above the seed.
The Dahurian larch is a native of eastern Siberia, Manchuria, Corea, and Saghalien. According to Herder[45] it occurs in the northern Ural range at lat. 68°, and at Nijni Kolymsk in north-eastern Siberia at the same latitude; but it is probable that in the former locality he may be referring to Larix sibirica, and in the latter case to the form now distinguished by Mayr as Larix Cajanderi. It is uncertain whether the larch which occurs in Kamtchatka is L. dahurica or a distinct species.[46]
Larix dahurica is very plentiful on the Stanovoi mountains, and along the southern half of the coast of the sea of Ochotsk. Middendorff found it on the Aldan mountains up to 4000 feet elevation. According to Komarov[47] it forms woods in moist situations in the mountain valleys throughout the Amur, Ussuri, S. Ussuri, and Kirin provinces of Manchuria and in northern Corea. Korshinksy[48] states that it is frequent in the whole Amur region, forming forests in the mountains of the upper Amur and Bureja, but that it does not occur in the plain between the Zeja and Bureja.
It occurs in Saghalien, in the northern half of which it grows mixed with common birch and attains a great size, a fallen tree in the forest having been measured by Hawes[49] as 145 feet in length, Elsewhere it forms part of the coniferous forest of the island, being mixed with Abies sachalinensis, Picea ajanensis, and Picea Glehnii. It also occurs on the island of Shintar.
Elwes saw at Wellesley, Mass., a young larch raised in the Arnold Arboretum from seed received at Petersburg as L. dahurica, which had a peculiar growth of the branches, which, according to Prof. Sargent, is seen in all the trees of the same origin. At the commencement of each season's growth the new wood made a distinct angle, turning upwards a little, so that in four years' growth it became erect. Prof. Sargent states that he saw many larches in eastern Siberia which he considered to be L. dahurica, and that they all had the same habit, The young trees at Boston have not yet borne cones, but the main stems were making annual growths about 2 feet long, and the tree seemed more at home in that climate than in England.
History
Pinus pendula was first described by Aiton in 1789; and Solander's[50] MS., on which the description was founded, states that the tree is a native of Newfoundland, with leaves longer and cones shorter than the European larch. A sheet of specimens preserved in the British Museum bears in Salisbury's handwriting "Pinus pendula"; three specimens are unmistakable L. dahurica; the fourth, a small branch, is L. americana.
Lambert's figure of P. pendula, published in 1803, is certainly L. dahurica, the drawing being made from specimens obtained from a tree in Collinson's garden at Mill Hill which was planted in 1739, the supposed first introduction of the species. Lambert also figures and describes, as a distinct species, P. microcarpa, identical 
Plate 106.
DAHURIAN LARCH AT WOBURN
Lawson's Manual, published in 1836, gives a careful description of both species, and repeats the information that they are natives of North America.
So far as we know Larix dahurica does not grow in N. America; and no traveller or botanist except Pursh ever claimed to have seen in the eastern part of the continent any species but L. americana. Pursh[51] asserts that L. pendula and L. microcarpa are distinct species, and were seen by him, the former growing in low cedar swamps from Canada to Jersey, the latter occurring about Hudson's Bay and on the high mountains of New York and Pennsylvania. As L. americana varies in the size of the cone, it seems certain that Pursh only saw forms of L. americana. It is very difficult to understand how seeds of L. dahurica from eastern Siberia could have been introduced so early.
Until about 1840 the American origin of L. pendula was unquestioned; and a tree planted in that year at Bayfordbury, and recorded in the planting book as L. pendula, is still living, and is undoubtedly L. dahurica. Larix dahurica was noticed first in Lawson's Manual as a stunted bushy tree, growing poorly, as it was propagated from cuttings or layers; and is stated to have been introduced in 1827. (A.H.)
Remarkable Trees
The finest specimen we know is figured in Plate 106, and is growing on the edge of a grassy drive at Woburn Abbey, where I first noticed its peculiar bark on the occasion of the visit of the Scottish Arboricultural Society to that place in July 1903. None of the members present could name the tree, and on comparing the foliage with the specimens at Kew I came to the conclusion that it must be a tree which is mentioned in the Pinetum Woburnense as Larix pendula, I went to Woburn again on purpose to see it in flower, on 31st March 1905, when the difference in the flowers from those of a pendulous form of the common larch growing close by was evident. But the less rugged bark, which resembles that of a cedar, is the best distinction, and is clearly shown in our illustration. It measured 86 feet high by 6 feet 7 inches in girth in 1905. I have raised a seedling from this tree.
A very similar tree is growing by the side of the entrance drive at Beauport, which from its bark and habit we believe to be of the same origin.
At Bayfordbury the tree planted in 1840 as Larix pendula is now 56 feet high and 5 feet in girth, with a conical stem, and bark scaling in large thin plates. European larches planted near it at the same time are 70 feet high and 5 to 6½ in girth. A tree at Denbies, near Dorking, the seat of Lord Ashcombe, was in 1903 40 feet high and 2 feet in girth. It is said to have been sent to Denbies as Larix Griffithii by Sir Joseph Hooker, but some mistake had evidently been made in the plant that was forwarded from Kew some forty years ago.
In the Cambridge Botanic Garden there are two trees of this species, one 56 feet high by 5 feet in girth, in 1906. The bark scales off in smaller plates than the common larch, and shows more red-coloured cortex below. The second tree, labelled L. pendula, is grafted at 6 feet up on the common larch, and has its stem bent over at a right angle a few feet higher up.
At Ribston Park, Yorkshire, there is a well-grown tree of L. dahurica which cannot be more than about forty years old, as Major Dent remembers its being planted, though its origin is unknown. It has somewhat pendulous branches and smooth bark without ridges, and measures 71 feet by 5 feet 2 inches. It had both new and old cones on it in 1906.
There are some larches at Boynton, near Bridlington, Yorkshire, which Sir Charles Strickland has always known as red larches, and supposed to have been of American origin, but which I believe, on account of their smoother bark, to be L. dahurica. The best of them is 75 feet by 7 feet 8 inches; another, with a very spreading top, was 9 feet 4 inches in girth; and both had cones from which seedlings have been raised. Sir Charles Strickland has written of these in the Gardeners' Chronicle, 1896, pp. 399 and 494. He says that the trees which have been grown at Boynton for eighty or ninety years under the name of red and black larch are the two trees described in Loudon as varieties of Larix americana; and that the red larch is more like the European larch, and in loose, rather wet, sandy soil grows at Boynton as fast and to as large a size, but he does not consider the wood quite as good as that of the common larch; it is more liable to twist and warp, though probably as durable. On drier soils the red larch is much less healthy and vigorous than the common one.
At Murthly Castle there is a row of fifteen trees which were planted about 1881 by Mr. D.F. Mackenzie, who informs me that they were probably from the nursery of Messrs. B. Reid of Aberdeen, but their origin cannot now be traced with certainty. Their habit varies very much, the first one, coming from the Castle, having very pendulous branches and a weeping top, which none of the others possess. The cones also vary somewhat in size and colour, but with one exception—which I believe to be a common larch planted subsequently to replace a dead tree of the original lot—are characteristic of L. dahurica. The trees average 40 to 45 feet high and 3 to 4 feet in girth, and have the bark distinctly smoother and less corrugated than the bark of common larch growing under similar conditions. They are fairly healthy in appearance, with no evidence of having suffered from Peziza, but are bearing cones so freely that I do not expect they will become large trees. Mr. Mackenzie attributes this to their growing on dry, gravelly soil. (H.J.E.)
Plate 107.
LARCH IN KURILE ISLANDS
LARIX KURILENSIS
- Larix kurilensis, Mayr, Abiet. Jap. Reiches, 66, t. 5, f. 15 (1890), and Fremdländ. Wald- u. Parkbäume, 300 (1906).
- Larix dahurica, Turczaninow, var. japonica, Maximowicz, in Regel, Rev. Sp. Gen. Larix, p. 59, and Gartenflora, xx. 105, t. 685 (1871); Miyabe, Mem. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist. iv. 261 (1890).
A tree, attaining in the Kurile Islands a height of 70 feet and a girth of 7 to 8 feet. Bark, according to Mayr, scarcely distinguishable from that of the Japanese larch. Young branchlets covered with a moderately dense, wavy, irregular pubescence. Branchlets of the second year shining reddish brown, pubescent. Base of the shoot girt by a ring of the previous season's bud-scales, the uppermost of which are loose and reflected, no ring of pubescence being visible; short shoots dark red, or almost black, shining. Terminal buds dark red, ovoid, with comparatively few scales, which are acuminate, non-resinous, ciliate with brown silky hairs. Lateral buds ovoid, dark red, with ciliate scales. Apical buds of the short shoots hemispherical, dark red, with no ring of pubescence at the base.
Leaves glaucous, short, broad, and curved, about an inch long, rounded at the apex, few in a bundle, usually twenty to thirty, spreading so as to form a wide open cup around the bud; upper surface flattened, green without stomata; lower surface deeply keeled, with two bands of stomata, each of five lines.
Flowers not seen. Cones small, cylindrical, about 3⁄4 inch long, composed of few scales, less than twenty, with the bracts conspicuous at the base of the cone, but concealed elsewhere by the upper scales. Scales oval, longer than broad, about 1⁄3 inch long; upper margin thin, emarginate, slightly bevelled, not reflected; outer surface minutely pubescent towards the base. Bract panduriform, about half the length of the scale, terminated by a very short mucro. Seeds lying on the scale in two depressions which are separated by a membranous ridge, with the wings slightly divergent and extending up to the margin of the scale. Seed about 1⁄8 inch long; seed with wing about 1⁄3 inch long; wing broadest just above the seed. (A.H.)
This tree was first distinguished as a species by Dr. Mayr, the distinguished dendrologist and traveller, who found it in the Kurile Islands, especially on Iturupp,[52] where it forms forests of some extent. Sargent gives an excellent illustration, plate xxvi. in the Forest Flora of Japan, from a photograph taken by Dr. Mayr, and I am able to show its aspect in the same island from two photographs kindly given me by the Imperial Japanese Forest Department (Plate 107). The upper shows a forest of larch on Iturupp; the lower a scattered group near the shore on the same island.
The tree was commonly planted in the neighbourhood of Sapporo, and it was introduced into Europe in 1888 by Dr. Mayr, and seems to grow almost as well as the Japanese larch, at least when young. There is a tree 15 feet high at Grafrath, the experimental forestry station near Munich, where the thermometer goes down to 15° Fahr. below zero, and seedlings only four years old are already 5½ feet high. They resembled Larix americana more than L. leptolepis in the blackish colour of their young shoots. Dr. Mayr says that it is the first larch to become green in Europe, though in my nursery seedlings of the Altai and north Russian larches are both earlier. He says that its dark shoots have gained it the name of black larch from visitors to his nursery, and that in the park of The Duke of Inn- and Knyphausen at Liitetsburg in east Friesland it grows faster than any other species of larch, being 6 metres high at the age of seven years.[53]
So far as our very short experience of this tree in England enables us to judge, it is likely to thrive well, at any rate in its youth. Several young trees which are in my nursery grow fast, and ripen their growths earlier than common larch. Some seed received from Japan in June 1906 germinated very quickly, and made healthy
little plants the same season. It should be tried especially in the wetter parts of Great Britain. (H.J.E.)
LARIX LEPTOLEPIS
- Larix leptolepis, Endlicher,[54] Syn. Conif. 130 (1847); Gordon, Pinetum, 128 (1858); Mayr, Abiet. Jap. Reiches, 63, t. 5, f 14 (1890), and Fremdländ. Wald- u. Parkbäume, 302 (1906); Kent, Veitch's Man. Coniferæ, 397 (1900).
- Larix japonica, Carrière, Conif. 272 (1855).
- Larix Kaempferi, Sargent, Silva N. Amer. xii. 2, adnot. 2 (1898).
- Pinus Larix, Thunberg, Fl. Jap. 275 (1784) (not Linnæus).
- Pinus Kaempferi, Lambert, Pinus, ii. preface, p. v (1824).
- Abies Kaempferi, Lindley, Penny Cycl. i. 34 (1833).
- Abies leptolepis, Siebold et Zuccarini, Fl. Jap. ii. 12, t. 105 (1842).
- Pinus leptolepis, Endlicher, Syn. Conif. 130 (1847).
A tree attaining in Japan a height of 100 feet and a girth of 12 feet. Bark of native trees, according to Mayr, similar to that of the European larch, the freshly exfoliating scales being more brownish than red; but in cultivated trees in England the bark begins to scale very early, peeling off usually in large long strips and giving a red appearance to the trunk. Young branchlets glaucous, usually covered with a dense, erect, brown pubescence, but occasionally almost glabrous, only a few brown hairs being present. Branchlets of the second year reddish with a glaucous tinge, retaining some pubescence or quite glabrous. Base of the shoots girt by a sheath of the previous season's bud-scales, the uppermost of which are loose and reflected, with no ring of pubescence visible. Short shoots stouter than in the common larch, reddish, glabrous. Terminal buds sharply conical, resinous, glabrous, the lowermost scales subulately pointed. Lateral buds ovoid, glabrous, resinous, directed slightly forwards. Apical buds of the short shoots conical, with loose scales, surrounded at the base by a ring of pubescence.
Leaves glaucous, about 11⁄4 inch long, rounded at the apex; upper surface flattened, with two bands of stomata, variable in the number of lines, often two to four in each band on leaves of the long shoots, usually one to two irregular lines on leaves of the short shoots; lower surface deeply keeled, with two conspicuous bands of stomata, each of five lines.
Staminate flowers ovoid, sessile, smaller than in L. europea. Pistillate flowers ovoid, pinkish; bracts all recurved, about 1⁄5 inch long, oblong, broadest at the base, truncate, and scarcely emarginate at the apex, brownish with pink margins, mucro about 1⁄20 inch long. Cones shortly ovoid, broad in proportion to their length, 1 to 11⁄4 inch long, readily distinguished by the thin reflected upper margins of the scales, of which there are four to five spiral rows of eight to nine in each row. Scales almost orbicular, about 2⁄5 inch long and wide; upper margin very thin, reflected, truncate or slightly emarginate; outer surface furrowed, slightly pubescent. Seeds in very shallow depressions on the scale, their wings slightly divergent and extending to its upper margin; seed about 1⁄6 inch long, with wing 2⁄5 inch long.
A stunted form, growing on the higher parts of Fuji-yama, was collected by John Gould Veitch, and was considered to be a new species by A. Murray;[55] and is recognised as a variety by Sargent. According to Mayr, it scarcely deserves to be ranked as a variety, as it only differs in being a low tree, with smaller cones than usual, which are only 3⁄5 inch in diameter and globular in shape. (A.H.)
Introduction
It was introduced by J.G. Veitch in 1861 from seeds which he procured during his visit to Japan. Nothing is said by Kent as to the number of plants raised and sent out at that time, but probably the number was small, as we know of few trees as old as forty-five years. Larger importations were made later, and the tree grew so well generally that it is now being planted almost everywhere, and some of the older trees have produced good seed for ten years or more.
Distribution
In Japan this larch grows naturally on the slopes of volcanic mountains in a sandy soil at 4000 to 6000 feet elevation, in a climate very much warmer and moister in summer, drier in winter, and less liable to late frosts than England.
Where I first saw it, on a sandy plain above the Lake Chuzenji on the slopes of the volcano of Nantai-san, the trees were of no great size, averaging perhaps 60 to 70 feet in height, with a girth rarely exceeding 6 feet in mature trees, and more often 3 to 4 feet. They were very similar in habit to the larch in the Alps, and had not an excessive development of branches. Higher up above Yumoto in rich forest soil, thinly scattered among deciduous trees of many species, they were larger, sometimes attaining 80 feet high and 10 to 12 feet in girth; but I saw none anywhere which rivalled our larch in height, and am inclined to think it is not nearly such a long-lived tree, though, as I saw none felled, I was unable to count the rings. Prof. Sargent, who saw the tree in the same place as I did, came to a very similar conclusion. Mayr states that he found it wild on the volcanoes of central Hondo, Fuji, Ontake, Asama, Shiranesan, Norikura, and others, always growing near the timber line, with Abies, Tsuga, and Picea hondoensis.
The tree is valued for its timber, which is used for ship- and boat-building, and has lately come into great demand for railway sleepers and telegraph poles. In consequence of this it has been largely planted at elevations of 4000 to 5000 feet in the central and northern provinces, and many plantations that I saw of ten to fifteen years old were very similar to larch plantations in England in growth and habit. I also saw it planted experimentally in Hokkaido, along the lines of railway, where it seemed to grow as well in this rich black soil as in its native mountains.
Cultivation
In 1890 I sowed seeds from three different localities—Dunkeld, Hildenley, and Tortworth—and raised plants from each of them, which grew better than seedlings raised at the same time from Japanese seed; but this may have been partly due to the fact that the latter were dressed with paraffin by my forester to protect them from birds and mice in the seed-bed. At six years old these plants are now from four to eight feet high, and though some of them have been more or less checked by severe spring frosts, they are generally growing well.
As a proof of the hardiness of the tree I may mention that the late Sir R. Menzies showed me three young trees which he had planted, at an elevation of about 1250 feet, in the garden of the inn near the top of the pass between Glen Lyon and Loch Rannoch; and in some of his plantations on the north shore of Loch Rannoch they were growing very vigorously in mixture with Douglas fir.
No conifer of recent introduction has attracted so much attention among foresters as the Japanese larch, which, during the last ten years, has been sown very largely by nurserymen (Messrs. Dickson of Chester are said to have sold no less than 750,000 in the year 1905), and is looked upon by many foresters as likely to replace the common larch, because it is, so far as we yet know, less liable to the attacks of Peziza Willkommiii. But this pest has already in more than one place been certainly identified on the Japanese larch, and I have little doubt that as time goes on we shall hear more of this. Henry visited in 1904 six plantations of Japanese larch of ages from five to sixteen years, and in none could detect any sign of canker. There 
Plate 108.
JAPANESE LARCH AT TORTWORTH
Mayr's opinion on the suitability of the tree for economic plantations in Europe is the same as my own, and he considers that though it may grow faster than the European larch for the first twenty years, yet that it will eventually be surpassed if planted under precisely similar conditions. He also agrees with me that though in selected positions and under careful cultivation it may not seem so liable as the European larch to the attacks of Peziza, yet that it is not immune, and the figures which he gives of its growth in Germany show that it has the same tendency to produce spreading branches there as in Great Britain. In a note on this tree by K. Kumé, chief of the Forestry Bureau in Japan, in Trans. Scot. Arb. Soc. xx. 28, January 1907, a yield table at various ages is given, which shows that on soils of medium quality in Japan the mean basal diameter at 100 years old is about a foot, the mean height 92 feet, and the stem volume per acre 6330 cubic feet. I will only note that what is meant by land of medium quality in Japan is very superior to what it is in this country. In Germany Mayr says that the seed falls in autumn from the cones, which are busily sought for by squirrels, and that self-sown seed has germinated freely at Grafrath under trees twenty-two years old.
Remarkable Trees
There are many specimens now of about 4o feet high in various parts of the country, but of those that I have seen the one figured, which is growing at Tortworth (Plate 108), is perhaps the finest. It measured in 1904, 45 feet by 4 feet 7 inches, and was covered with cones. It is growing on red sandy soil, and Lord Ducie thinks it is one of the earliest introductions. At Hollycombe, Sussex, the seat of J.C. Hawkshaw, Esq., Mr. G. Marshall measured a tree 45 feet by 2 feet 4 inches in 1904. At Hildenley, Yorkshire, there is a fine tree about 4o feet high, which produces good seed. A clump of fine trees is reported[58] to be growing at Bothalhaugh, near Morpeth. There is also a fine specimen at Brook House, Haywards Heath, the residence of Mrs. Stephenson Clarke.
At Dunkeld there is a tree planted close to a common larch, from which seedlings were raised at my suggestion by the late D. Keir, which appear to be hybrids between the two species.[59] His son, who succeeded him as forester to the Duke of Atholl, and who has watched the growth of these seedlings, considers them to be intermediate between the two species; but it is yet too soon to be certain.
At Abercairney, Perthshire, the seat of Col. Drummond Moray, there is a tree, raised from seed brought from Japan in 1883, which, measured by Henry in 1904, was 38 feet by 3 feet 5 inches. At Blair Drummond, in the same county, he measured ten trees planted in 1888, one of which was 44 feet high, and the average girth 2 feet 5 inches. They were all healthy though growing among common larch which was diseased.
At Cullen House, Banffshire, Mr. Campbell tells me that there is a tree 45 feet by 34 feet. At Kirkennan, near Dalbeattie, Kircudbrightshire, two larches sown in 1885 were in 1904 41 feet by 2 feet and 35 feet by 1 foot 11 inches. We are indebted for this information to the owner Mr. W. Maxwell.
In Germany at Schloss Lütetsburg, it seems to have grown faster than with us, for it is stated[60] that trees thirty-five to forty years old are 17 to 20 metres high, with a girth at 1 metre of 1.80 to 2.70 metres. (H.J.E.)
LARIX GRIFFITHII, Sikkim Larch
- Larix Griffithii, J.D. Hooker, Ill. Himal. Pl. t. 21 (excl. ff. 1–4) (1855), Flora Br. India, v. 655 (1888), and Gard. Chron. xxv. 718, f. 157 (1886); Masters, Gard. Chron. xxvi. 464, f. 95 (1886); Kent, Veitch's Man. Coniferæ, 395 (1900); Gamble, Indian Timbers, 720 (1902).
- Larix Griffithiana, Carrière, Conif. 278 (1855).
- Abies Griffithiana, Lindley and Gordon, Journ. Hort. Soc. v. 214 (1850).
- Pinus Griffithii, Parlatore, DC. Prod. xvi. 2, p. 411 (1864).
A tree, attaining in the Himalayas about 60 feet in height, with thick brown bark, and wide-spreading, long and pendulous branches,
Young branchlets, reddish, covered with a dense wavy, more or less appressed pubescence, and girt at the base by a sheath of the previous season's bud-scales, the uppermost of which are very broad, loose, membranous, and reflected. Branchlets of the second year very stout, dull reddish brown, pubescent. Short shoots broad and stout, fringed above by very large, loose, reflected, pubescent, membranous bud-scales. Terminal buds broadly conical, non-resinous, with pubescent scales. Lateral buds ovoid, pointing outwards and forwards, non-resinous, pubescent. Apical buds of the short shoots conical, with loose pubescent scales,
Leaves light green in colour, about 1¼ inch long, ending in a short rounded point; upper surface rounded or flat, with one or two broken lines of stomata near the apex; lower surface deeply keeled with two bands of stomata, each of three (occasionally five) lines. In cultivated specimens, the leaves are fringed on each side with a very thin and narrow membranous translucent border.
Staminate flowers, 3⁄8 inch long, cylindrical, raised on short stout stalks, about 1⁄16 inch long. Pistillate flowers ovoid; bracts reflected at their bases, with the mucros pointing downwards, oblong, truncate or slightly concave at the apex, the green midrib being prolonged into a mucro about 1⁄6 inch long.
Cones 3 to 4 inches long, cylindrical, tapering to a narrow, flattened apex, supported on a short stalk, glaucous green or purplish, with orange-brown bracts before ripening, composed of five spiral rows of scales, eighteen to twenty scales in each row, which, on the opening of the cone, stand almost at right angles to its axis, the bracts being exserted with their mucros directed upwards. Scales quadrangular, with a cuneate base, about 1⁄2 inch in width and length; upper margin truncate and slightly emarginate; outer surface radially furrowed, densely pubescent towards the base. Bract lanceolate, nearly as long or quite as long as the scale, the mucro, often incurved, projecting beyond the scale about 3⁄16 inch. Seeds lying in slight depressions on the scale, their wings widely divergent and not extending to its upper margin. Seed, white on the inner side, shining dark brown on the outer side, about ¢ inch long; seed with wing about 7⁄16 inch long; wing brownish, rather opaque, broadest about the middle. Cotyledons[61] five to six, which, in the seedling, are linear, pointed, and much longer than the succeeding leaves. (A.H.)
The Sikkim larch is confined, so far as we know at present, to a rather narrow area in the Himalaya, from eastern Nepal to Bhutan, but very possibly will be found farther east. It was discovered by Griffith, but not distinguished until Sir Joseph Hooker found it in E, Nepal in December 1848.[62] Here it was only a small tree 20 to 40 feet high, differing from the European larch, in having very long, pensile, whip-like branches. It is called "Saar" by the Lepchas, and "Boargasella" by the Nepalese, who said that it was only found as far west as the sources of the Cosi river. In Sikkim it is common in the interior valleys of the Lachen, Lachoong, and their tributaries from about 8000 to 12,000 feet elevation, and here attains a larger size, but is not found in the forests of British Sikkim. In Illustrations of Himalayan Plants from Drawings by Cathcart, where it is beautifully figured, Sir Joseph states that it grows to a height of 60 feet in deep valleys, but prefers the dry rocky ancient moraines formed by glaciers, and also grows on grassy slopes where the drainage is good. On my journey to Tibet in 1870 I saw this tree in the Lachoong valley, but nowhere forming a forest, and usually scattered singly in rather open places, where it seemed to me to have a much less erect and regular growth, with branches more drooping in habit than any other larch. Sir Joseph Hooker says that the wood is soft and white, but a specimen from the Chumbi valley, authenticated by cones, is described by Gamble as having red heart-wood with a slow growth, twentyone rings to the inch, and a weight of 32 lbs. to the foot.
Though introduced by Sir Joseph Hooker, who sent seeds to Kew in 1848, this tree has, except in a few places in the south-west of England, failed to grow in Europe. He says that the seedlings raised from his seeds were 3 to 4 feet high in 1855, and that some had withstood the severe winter of 1854-5 without protection, though others were killed, a difference which he attributes to some of the seed having been gathered from trees which grew at 8000 and some from trees at nearly 13,000 feet. Hooker[63] further states that hundreds of plants were raised and widely distributed by Kew, but in every case these succumbed in a few years to virulent attacks of Coccus laricis. As the climate of the Chumbi valley is much drier than that of Sikkim, it is quite possible that seed from that locality would give better results; but I have never been able to keep the tree alive at Colesborne for long, as it suffers from the dry climate, and seems to object to lime in the soil. Mr. Barrie, forester to the Hon. Mark Rolle, has been very successful in growing this tree from English-grown seed, and has sent me healthy young plants of it; but the seedlings I have raised at Colesborne both from imported and home-grown seed have always died, though protected by a frame.
Remarkable Trees
The largest specimen of the Sikkim larch we know of in this country is one at Coldrinick, near Menheniot, Cornwall, the seat of Major-Gen. Jago-Trelawney. I have not seen this tree, but the gardener, Mr. Skin, informs me that in 1905 it measured no less than 57 feet by 4 feet 6 inches in girth. It has very spreading branches, the width from point to point of the lowermost branches being 43 feet. The cones were admirably figured in the Gardeners' Chronicle,[64] and have produced fertile seed. The seedlings require careful treatment, as they easily "damp off."
A tree of the original introduction is growing at Strete Raleigh, Devonshire, the seat of H.M. Imbert Terry, Esg., who showed it to me in 1903, when it measured 40 feet high by 4 feet in girth. It is growing on poorish soil at a considerable elevation, where it is a good deal exposed to the damp south-west winds, and perhaps in consequence of this has thriven very well, and has borne fertile seed for some years past (Plate 109).
Another much smaller tree, which also bears cones, is growing at Leonardslee in Sussex. There is also an old tree at Pencarrow, in Cornwall, which in 1905 was only 12 feet high by 15 inches in girth, stunted and covered with lichen. It also bears cones.
Dr. Masters[65] received flowering specimens in 1896 from The Frythe, Welwyn, Herts; but the tree from which they were obtained could not be found when Henry visited this place in 1906. (H.J.E.)
Plate 109.
SIKKIM LARCH AT STRETE RALEIGH
LARIX POTANINI, Chinese Larch
- Larix Potanini, Batalin, Act. Hort. Petrop. xiii. 385 (1894); Masters, Gard. Chron. xxxix. 178, f. 68 (1906).
- Larix thibetica, Franchet, Jour. de Bot. 1899, p. 262.
- Larix Griffithii, Masters, Jour. Linn. Soc. (Bot.) xxvi. 558 (1902). (Not Hooker.)
A tree attaining in western China a height of 70 feet and a girth of 6 feet. Young branchlets bright yellow, with a scattered pubescence, densest near the base of the shoot, which is girt by a sheath of the previous season's bud-scales, showing within a ring of pubescence. Buds ovoid, with ciliate scales.
Leaves slender, up to an inch in length, ending in a sharp cartilaginous point, tetragonal in section, keeled above and below, with two bands of stomata, each of two lines, on both the upper and lower surfaces.
Staminate flowers, 1⁄4 inch long, on a short but distinct stalk. Pistillate flowers ovoid, narrow and rounded at the apex; bracts closely appressed, on one side of the young cone with their tips pointing towards its apex, on the other side reflected about their middle with their apices pointing towards the base of the cone, ovate or oblong, rounded and entire at the apex, which is prolonged into a short mucro. The bracts in the pistillate flower, described above as seen in herbarium specimens, are probably all reflected at first; and gradually by the growth of the scale assume the erect position.
Cones cylindrical, rounded at the apex, 13⁄4 inch long, with the scales and bracts pointing upwards and outwards, or more or less spreading. Scales small, about 1⁄3 inch long, almost orbicular, reddish brown, pubescent on the lower part of the outer surface; upper margin rounded or truncate, entire, thin, slightly inflected, not bevelled. Bract extending beyond the scale, exserted with the mucro about 1⁄4 inch. Seeds in slight depressions on the scale, with their wings widely divergent and not reaching to its upper margin. Seed about 1⁄8 inch long; seed with wing 1⁄3 inch long; wing broadest just above the seed.
Larix Potanini has been collected in western China by Potanin, Prince Henry of Orleans, Pratt, and Wilson, who found it in the neighbourhood of the SzechuanThibetan frontier near Tachienlu at 7500 to 11,000 feet above sea-level. The same species, according to Franchet, was probably collected by Père Delavay farther south on the Likiang range in Yunnan at 11,600 feet altitude. Mr. A. Hosie, ConsulGeneral in Szechuan, informs me that forty miles north-east of Tachienlu, there is a pure forest of this larch between 11,000 and 12,000 feet elevation on the southern slope of the mountain range, and extending for about a mile. It consists of fine straight trees, which he estimated to be about 70 feet high. At lower altitudes the larch gives place to silver fir and birch. The tree is known to the Chinese as '"hung-sha," red fir, and produces the most valuable coniferous timber in western China.
Seed was collected by Wilson in 1904, and plants have been raised, which are growing well at Veitch's nursery, Coombe Wood.
This species, being a purely alpine tree of no great size, will probably be of no value as a forest tree, resembling in that respect its immediate allies L. Griffithii and L. Lyallii, between which it occupies an intermediate position as regards botanical characters. (A.H.)
LARIX AMERICANA, Tamarack
- Larix americana, Michaux, Fl. Bor. Am. ii. 203 (1803); Sargent, Silva N. Am. xii. 7, t. 593 (1898), and Trees N. Am. 35 (1905); Kent, Veitch's Man. Conif. 389 (1900).
- Larix americana, Michaux, var. rubra, Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iv. 2400 (1838).
- Larix tenuifolia, Salisbury, Trans. Linn. Soc. viii. 314 (1807).
- Larix microcarpa, Desfontaines, Hist. Arb. ii. 597 (1809); Lawson, Agric. Man. 388 (1836).
- Larix laricina, Koch, Dendrologie, II. ii. 263 (1873).
- Larix pendula, Masters, Journ. Roy. Hort. Soc. xiv. 218 (1892). (Not Salisbury.)
- Pinus Larix americana nigra, Muenchausen, Hausv. v. 226 (1770).
- Pinus laricina, Du Roi, Obs. Bot. 49 (1771).
- Pinus intermedia, Wangenheim, Beit. Hölz. Forst. Nord Am. Hölz. 42, t. 16, f. 37 (1787).
- Pinus microcarpa, Lambert, Pinus, i. 58, t. 37 (1803).
- Abies microcarpa, Poiret, Lamarck's Dict. vi. 514 (1804).
A tree attaining in America about 80 feet in height and 6 feet in girth. Bark separating in thin small polygonal or roundish scales about an inch in diameter, which are closely appressed, and show when they fall off the reddish cortex beneath. Young branchlets slender, often glaucous, glabrous, or with a few scattered hairs in the grooves between the pulvini; older branchlets glabrous, shining brown. Base of the shoot girt with a short sheath of the previous season's bud-scales, no ring of pubescence being visible. Short shoots small, blackish, glabrous. Terminal buds globose, slightly resinous, glabrous, with the basal scales subulately pointed. Lateral buds hemispherical, resinous, dark brown. Apical buds of the short shoots broadly conical, surrounded at the base by a ring of brown pubescence.
Leaves short and slender, not exceeding 1¼ inch in length, rounded at the apex, light green; upper surface flat or rounded, without stomata, except two broken lines near the tip; lower surface deeply keeled with two bands of stomata, each of one to two lines.
Staminate flowers sessile, shorter than in L. europæa. Pistillate flowers ovoid, reddish, very small; bracts pointing upwards and outwards, not reflected or recurved, 1⁄8 to 1⁄6 inch long, oblong, scarcely emarginate at the apex, reddish with a green midrib and mucro, the latter cuspidate and very short, about 1⁄30 inch long.
Cones small, globose, consisting of three to four spiral rows of five scales each, reddish brown when ripe, 1⁄2 to 2⁄3 inch long. Scales gaping widely at the apex of the cone, longer than broad, about 2⁄5 inch long; upper margin rounded, bevelled, slightly crenulate, not recurved or reflected. Bract concealed, minute, about 1⁄6 inch long. Seeds lying on the scale in minute depressions, with their wings only slightly divergent and not reaching to its upper margin, 1⁄7 inch long; wing 1⁄3 inch long, broadest just above the seed. (A.H.)
Distribution
The American larch is found in the United States from North Pennsylvania, Northern Indiana and Illinois, and Central Minnesota through the New England States, where, however, it is only found in cold and swampy places. In Newfoundland, Labrador, and the eastern provinces of Canada it occupies swampy ground, and extends from York Factory on Hudson Bay as far as Fort Churchill, 67° 30' N., and west to Athabasca and Peace river districts, and in Alberta where it has been found forty miles S.W. of Edmonton.[66] Northwards it extends to the border of the barren lands. Mr. J.M. Macoun informs me that it was found by Mr. Camsell in the angle between the Snake river and the upper part of Peel river. This place is just within the Yukon district. He also states that it extends westward twenty-two miles up the Dease river, and northward along the upper Liard river to lat. 61° 30'. He has heard several people who have been on the Yukon speak of the larch, so that it must be quite common in some parts, though no definite data are as yet given.
The tamarack, as it is called in most parts of N. America, is a tree which | know but little in a state of nature, and which never seems to have received the attention from foresters which it deserves; for though it nowhere attains the size of the common larch, it seems able to thrive in undrained and swampy ground where that would die; and though a slow-growing tree in comparison with the common larch, its timber has the same valuable qualities as others of the genus.
Henry saw this species in Minnesota in 1906. On the Cass Lake Forest Reserve it occurs in the swampy ground between the pine-covered sand-dunes, in company with balsam fir, Thuya, black and white spruce, birch, and willow. The largest that he saw measured 81 feet by 4 feet 7 inches. The trees are remarkable for their buttressed roots, which branch and extend close to the surface and even above ground for as much as 6 feet. Seedlings were numerous in felled areas near Erskine, where the larch remaining uncut, occurs in swamps either pure or mixed only with birch. They grow very rapidly in the wet ground, taking root in mossy elevated patches and not in the water of the swamps; and averaged to feet high at seven years old, and were making leaders of 1 to 2 feet annually. He saw no stumps larger than 2 feet in diameter, and the tree in Minnesota rarely attains a greater size than 80 feet by 6 feet. In Garden and Forest, 1890, p. 60, there is, however, mention of a tamarack in Minnesota, which measured 7 feet 8 inches in girth and was estimated at 125 feet high.
In most parts of New England and over the greater part of British North America the tamarack is a well-known tree, but rarely attains any great size. The average in the neighbourhood of Ottawa is not over 50 to 60 feet, but when the tree is planted on drier, better land it will grow faster and attain 80 feet or more. I noticed that though it seeds freely the seedlings require more light than those of the spruce balsam fir, and Thuya, which often grow with it, and it was only where clearings had been made, or in wet places on the edge of the groves, that they seemed able to thrive. Their growth is slow at first, but when established may be as much as two feet annually.
Dr. Bell gives the probable life of the white spruce in Canada as from 100 to 140 years, that of the black spruce 150 to 175 years, and that of tamara 175 or 200 years. Of the latter he says:[67] About 1893 or 1894 the imported sawfly[68] came up from the direction of New York and got into the forests north of the Ottawa river. Ina year or two it reached James bay and killed the tamarack throughout that district, which was only able to live three or four years after it was first attacked by the larva. This destruction continued to spread to the centre of Labrador, and now it has gone pretty well all over that great peninsula. But Mr. J.C. Langelier (loc. cit. p. 65); speaking of the same attack in the northern part of the province of Quebec, says that a great portion of the young trees were spared, and that the dead trees which remain standing are not attacked by rot, and would supply excellent railway ties.
Remarkable Trees
In this country there are not many large trees of this species, though it was introduced, according to Loudon,[69] by the Duke of Argyll in 1760 at Whitton, near Hounslow. It has been entirely neglected by modern arboriculturists, and is seldom or never procurable in English nurseries. The largest trees that I know of are at Dropmore, where there is a well-grown tree 78 feet by 5 feet (Plate 110), and at Arley Castle, where there are three trees of nearly the same size standing together, of which the best measures 71 feet by 4 feet 8 inches. A fourth is nearly as large, and differs in having larger cones.
At Boynton, Yorkshire, there are two in a wet situation among other trees, about 50 feet high and sixty years old, which were raised by Sir Charles Strickland from seed produced by trees planted by his grandfather. These again have produced fertile seeds, from which seedlings are growing vigorously in a low frosty situation at Colesborne and have never suffered from frost or bug, though one of them in 1906 was attacked by Peziza. Sir Charles adds that on dry soil they have grown very badly.
At Beauport there are three rather stunted specimens of American larch, one of which, however, is 5 feet 10 inches in girth, and has the bark very smooth in comparison with the common larch. No specimen seems to have been sent to the Conifer Conference, but one is mentioned as growing in the grounds of Dalkeith Palace,[70] which we have identified with L. dahurica. Several trees mentioned by Loudon are either not now in existence or were not correctly named. (H.J.E.)
Plate 110.
AMERICAN LARCH AT DROPMORE
LARIX OCCIDENTALIS, Western Larch
- Larix occidentalis, Nuttall, Sylva, iii. 143, t. 120 (1849); Lyall, Journ. Linn. Soc. vii. 143 (1864); Sargent, Gard. Chron. xxv. 652, f. 145 (1886), Silva N. Amer. xii. 11, t. 594 (1898), and Trees N. Amer. 36 (1905); Kent, Veitch's Man. Coniferæ, 400 (1900); Mayr, Fremdländ. Wald- u. Parkbäume, 306 (1906).
- Pinus Nuttalli, Parlatore, DC. Prod. xvi. 2, p. 412 (1868).
A tree attaining in America 200 feet in height and over 20 feet in girth; narrowly pyramidal in habit, the branches being much shorter than in the other species. Bark of young stems thin, dark-coloured, and scaly; becoming near the base of old trunks 6 inches thick and breaking into irregularly shaped oblong plates, often 2 feet in length and covered with thin reddish scales. Young branchlets covered with a minute dense pubescence intermixed with longer hairs in the grooves between the pulvini. In certain cultivated specimens the branchlets are glabrous from the first. Branchlets of the second year light brown, shining. Base of the shoot girt with a sheath of the previous season's bud-scales, no ring of pubescence being visible. Short shoots chestnut brown, shining. Terminal buds globose, with pubescent and ciliate scales, the lowermost of which are subulately pointed. Lateral buds hemispherical with pubescent and ciliate scales. Apical buds of the short shoots broadly conical, reddish brown, pubescent.
Leaves light green in colour, up to 13⁄4 inch long, rounded on the back, deeply keeled beneath, with stomatic lines as in L. europea.
Staminate flowers raised on short stalks at maturity. Pistillate flowers ovoid; the bracts pointing upwards and outwards and not recurved, 1⁄4 inch long, brownish in colour with a green midrib and mucro, oblong, emarginate at the apex; mucro 1⁄10 inch long.
Cones ovoid, 11⁄4 to 2 inches long, with the bracts long-exserted and the scales opening early in the season to let out the seeds and then standing at right angles to the axis of the cone. Scales in six spiral rows, each row of nine to ten scales; orbicular, 1⁄3 to 1⁄2 inch long; upper margin entire or emarginate, thin, slightly recurved, not bevelled; outer surface densely pubescent. Bracts ovatelanceolate, extending up to near the margin of the scale, beyond which the mucro projects 1⁄8 to 1⁄2 inch. Seeds lying in two deep depressions on the scale, their wings narrowly divergent and extending up to its upper margin; body of the seed 1⁄6 inch long; wing pale coloured, short and broad, widest at the base; seed with wing 1⁄4 to 2⁄5 inch long.
Varieties
In the wild state the tree shows little variation, except in the pubescence of the branchlets, which in rare cases is entirely absent; while in other cases, noticed occasionally at high elevations, the amount of pubescence becomes so dense as to be almost similar in character to the tomentum of Larix Lyallii. In the few cultivated trees in England, two distinct forms are apparent. Certain trees have pubescent branchlets and bear large cones, up to two inches in length, which have large scales purplish in colour before ripening, long exserted bracts and long-winged seeds. Other trees with glabrous branchlets bear small cones, about 14 inch in length, with scales green before ripening, shorter exserted bracts and small seeds with short wings. The former trees are more narrowly pyramidal in habit.
History
This splendid tree is the largest of the genus, and though it has been known to botanists for many years, it was till quite recently, on account of its being neglected by the early explorers of the limited region which it inhabits, one of the rarest exotic conifers in cultivation.
It was first discovered by David Douglas[71] in 1826 near Fort Colville on the Upper Columbia river; but was mistaken by him for the European larch. His specimens in the Kew Herbarium are labelled "in aqueous flats on the mountain valleys near Kettle Falls and in the Rocky Mountains, 1826." The tree was first described in 1849 by Nuttall, who found it on the Blue Mountains of Oregon in 1834.
It was introduced into cultivation in the Arnold Arboretum in 1881, seedlings having been imported from Oregon; but in the climate of New England these have remained small and stunted, though branches grafted on the Japanese larch have grown vigorously. Forty plants were sent from the Arnold Arboretum to Kew in 1881, and one tree survives (the fate of the other plants being unknown), which is remarkable for its beautiful straight stem and narrow, almost columnar habit. This tree bears large purplish cones, and is now (1906) 33 feet in height and 17 inches in girth.
Ten plants were subsequently sent in 1889 from the Arnold Arboretum to Kew, of which two survive. One of these trees is, however, identical in cones and pubescent branchlets with the tree of 1881, and may be erroneously labelled 1889; it has suffered damage at the top. The other tree, which has glabrous branchlets and bears small green cones, is not quite so narrow in habit, and measured in 1906 29 feet in height and 17½ inches in girth.
The only other large tree in Britain with which we are acquainted is growing at Grayswood Hill, Haslemere; and measured in 1906 28 feet high by 19 inches in girth. It has pubescent branchlets, and bears purple cones, which are, however, smaller than those of the Kew tree, labelled 1881. Mr. Chambers informs us that this tree was obtained from Messrs. Dickson of Chester in 1889.
Distribution
The western larch is confined to the more humid parts of the region, which extends from the western slope of the Rocky Mountains in British Columbia and Montana to the eastern slope of the Cascade Mountains in Washington and Oregon.
In British Columbia it is abundant and large in the Kootenay and Columbia river valleys, reaching as far north as the head of Upper Columbia lake, and attaining its most westerly point, where it was found by Prof. Dawson, in long. 124° E., on a tributary of the Blackwater river. It grows sparingly about the Shuswap lake and in the Coldstream valley near the head of Okanagan lake.
The tree, however, attains its greatest development in Montana, where it is abundant and constitutes a great part of the timber of the Flathead, Lewis and Clarke, and Bitter Root Forest Reserves; and is met with east of Missoula on the Big Blackfoot river. The tree can be most conveniently seen by the traveller on different points of the Great Northern Railway between Nyack and Bonner's Ferry. It attains also great perfection in Northern Idaho and North-East Washington, where it constitutes an important part of the timber of the Priest River Forest Reserve. It also occurs in Oregon, in the Blue Mountains, and on the foothills of the eastern side of the Cascade Mountains,[72] as far south as Mount Jefferson.
The western larch occurs between 2500 and 6000 feet altitude; and attains its maximum height and is most abundant in mountain valleys and on alluvial flats, where the average elevation is 3000 to 3500 feet. On the sides of the mountains, owing to the lack of moisture in the soil, it rapidly diminishes in size and vigour. It requires a wetter soil than either Pinus ponderosa or Douglas fir, and is restricted in its distribution where the rainfall is slight.
With regard to the opinion, prevalent even in America, that it grows in a semiarid climate, my experience is entirely different. The meteorological stations are almost invariably in towns in the prairie regions, where the rainfall is small and trees only occur on the banks of streams; and the maps and statistics of the rainfall give on that account an imperfect picture of the climatic conditions which prevail in the forest regions between the Cascades and the Rocky Mountains. At Kalispell in the Flathead country, which is situated in a treeless plain, surrounded by densely forested mountains, the annual rainfall varies from 13 to 19 inches; whereas at Columbia Falls, placed on the edge of the plain and amidst the larch forests, the rainfall increases to from 20 to 29 inches; and in the mountain valleys, as at Lake Macdonald and Swan Lake, where Thuya plicata attains a large size, the rainfall must exceed 30 inches. The meteorological data of Columbia Falls, which is at 3100 feet elevation, give a fair idea of the climate in which Larix occidentalis thrives, though it is scarcely here at its best. The figures for 1905, which was a dry year, are:—
Average precipitation for ten years 21.70 inches.
Rain or snow fell on 76 days; 91 days were cloudy; 49 days were partially cloudy; and the sky was clear on 149 days.
The above figures show that the climate is an extreme one, the winter season being cold and severe and lasting five months, while in summer a high temperature is often reached.
The western larch grows usually mixed with other conifers; and the number of accompanying species and the proportions of the admixture are very variable, being dependent on the climate and altitude, and on the quantity of moisture in the soil. Douglas fir is the most common companion of the larch, and Pinus ponderosa steps in where the soil is dry. Engelmann's spruce and Abies lasiocarpa descend into the larch forests, but never constitute any large element of it. Pinus monticola, Tsuga albertiana, and Abies grandis are often met with in small quantity at low altitudes in the larch forests of Montana; farther west, in the Priest River Forest Reserve, Pinus monticola is more abundant than the larch itself between 2400 and 4800 feet. Thuya plicata, in regions with a moist climate, forms a notable part of certain larch stands, often to the exclusion of the other species which usually accompany the larch.
The following notes on a few of the larch forests visited by me will illustrate some different types in Montana.
Near Missoula, in Pattie Cañon, which is a very dry valley at 3500 feet elevation in a rather arid climate, the larch only grows on the cool northern aspect, and is mixed with Douglas fir and Pinus ponderosa. An acre contained, of trees over a foot in diameter, twenty larches, four firs, and three pines. An average good larch tree measured 143 feet by 9 feet 7 inches; and a tree which we cut down, 14 inches in diameter, showed 211 annual rings, the sapwood being 1¼ inch in thickness and containing thirty-one rings.
On the southern end of Lake Macdonald, at 3500 feet altitude in a humid climate, I saw a fine stand composed almost exclusively of larch and Thuya plicata. The soil was glacial clay, very deep, and covered with a thick layer of humus. The Thuya only attained about 110 by 7 feet, and had been overtopped by the larch, which ran from 140 to 150 feet high, and 7 to 14 in girth. The trees were extremely dense upon the ground, standing often only 12 feet apart, and averaging 200 to the acre. The ground was covered with seedlings of Thuya, 3 to 6 feet high, and more than thirty years old. The Thuya trees were being felled for telegraph and telephone poles, but never had clean stems, being covered with dead branches to 6 to 20 feet above the ground, and with living branches above this, and when of a large size were always decayed at the heart. The larch, as usual, was quite sound.
A wood near Whitefish, on flat land in a moderately rainy district at 3000 feet altitude, was composed of about nine-tenths larch and one-tenth Douglas fir, Pinus ponderosa, and Engelmann's spruce. The larch were 160 feet high by 6 to 9 feet in girth, overtopping the other trees, and with clean stems up to 80 or go feet. A stump, 40 inches in diameter, showed 585 annual rings, the sapwood with forty-two rings being only an inch in thickness, and the bark two inches.
The largest tree which I saw was growing on a high bank beside the Stillwater Creek, some miles west of Whitefish. It measured 19 feet 4 inches in girth at 5 feet from the ground, but the top was blown off. Near it were many large trees, 12 feet to 15 feet in girth, but the tallest was only 151 feet in height.
With regard to the height attained by the western larch, Sargent in his Report on the Forest Trees of North America, 216 (1884), states that it ranges from 100 to 150 feet, but in the Silva he gives the maximum height as 250 feet. I could find no confirmation of the latter figure either at the Arnold Arboretum or Washington, and I am of opinion that 180 feet is rarely if ever exceeded. The tallest tree recorded by any accurate observer is, I believe, the one cut down by Ayres' in the Whitefish Valley at 3500 feet altitude, which measured 181 feet high, with a diameter of 3 feet on the stump, and scaled 3500 feet board measure. He mentions[73] also another tree growing on the middle fork of the Flathead river, which was 180 feet high by 4 feet in diameter.
J.B. Leiberg states in his account of the Priest River Forest Reserve that the larch in the sub-alpine zone, above 4800 feet elevation, averaged 60 to 100 feet in height, 1 to 2 feet in diameter, and eighty to a hundred years old; while in the white pine zone, from 2400 to 4800 feet, the trees were 150 to 200 feet in height, 2 to 4 feet in diameter, and 175 to 420 years old. Here the heights are evidently estimates, and cannot be relied on implicitly.
The western larch is rarely seen as pure forest, and then only as the result of forest fires. Mr. Langille in his account of the Cascade Forest Reserve, p. 36, says that the larch "has done more than any other species to restock the immense burns that have occurred on a part of the reserve. This is largely due to the fact that the thick bark of this tree resists fire better than any other species, and more trees are left to cast their seed on the clean loose soil and ashes immediately after a fire. The seeds are small and light, and are carried to remote places by the wind and covered deeply by the fall rains. In the spring a dense mass of seedlings covers the ground and grows rapidly. The thickets become so dense that it is impossible to travel through them. In time only the fittest survive, and there remains a thrifty, vigorous stand of this valuable timber." In Montana the lodge-pole pine usually takes possession of burnt areas; but I saw near Belton on the Great Northern Railway a hillside which had been swept by a fire, leaving a good number of larch trees unharmed, all the trees of other species being destroyed, and larch seedlings were coming up in profusion. On the Stillwater Creek farther west I noticed a burnt area on which the lodge-pole pines were about 30 feet high; and amongst them larch seedlings were growing in openings exposed to sunlight during at least a part of the day. Here in time the lodge-pole pine will be supplanted by the larch. Sargent's statement,[74] that young seedlings of the western larch are able to grow up under the shade of other trees, which they finally overtop and subdue, requires modification. Seedlings never occur in the shade of the forest, and are most numerous in open places exposed to full sunlight; but on good soil, as on a recently burnt area, they will spring up in the partial shade of small pine trees. The western larch is not a fast grower in the young stage; at Belton seedlings twelve years old, growing on rather poor rocky ground, were from 7 to 12 feet high.
As the seed of the western larch had never been collected, so far as we knew, by any one except Mr. Carl Purdy's collector in 1903, I visited Montana in 1906, with the object of collecting a large quantity for Sir John Stirling Maxwell and Lord Kesteven. In the common larch the seeds do not fall out of the cones until spring, and their collection during winter is an easy matter. The western larch behaves very differently, as will be seen by the following notes of my observations in Montana. About the middle of August the squirrels begin to throw down cones, a sign that the seeds are nearly ripe. About the 10th September the leaves, which form a tuft at the base of the cone, begin to turn yellow, and in a day or two become brown and withered, showing that the supply of nutrition to the cone is stopped. The cones, which until now were purplish in colour, become brown, and the scales gape open widely, allowing the seeds to escape. By the 20th September all the cones on the trees have become quite brown, and have emptied all their seeds. The empty cones remain on the branches till the autumn of the following year, by which time their peduncles have rotted and the cones are ready to fall. For collecting seed the larch forests must be visited during the first three weeks of September; and localities where felling is being carried on should be chosen, as the cones occur only at the summit of very tall trees, which are troublesome to cut down, even if permission to do so has been obtained from their owners. The western larch appears to produce a good crop of seed once every two or three years, and this is general over the whole region. 1906 was a remarkably poor year, scarcely any cones having been formed. In 1905, judging from the old cones of that year still remaining on the trees, the crop of seed was very abundant. (A.H.)
As I had long been trying to find a larch that would in England be less liable to the attacks of Peziza Willkommii than the common larch, I made inquiries as 
Plate 111.
WESTERN LARCH IN MONTANA
The seedlings raised in 1904, from the seed which I distributed, have grown in several places, best perhaps at Murthly, under the care of Mr. Lowrie, where in September 1906 I saw some hundreds thriving very well, though not so large as common larch of the same age. At Walcot, in rather dry soil, they were 6 to 9 inches high. At Colesborne they grew slowly, and many were killed or injured in the seedbed by the frost of May 1905; but I have just planted out a number which were raised for me by Messrs. Herd of Penrith, and which are 12 to 18 inches high.
I visited Missoula in June 1904 on purpose to see the tree, and was fortunate enough to do so in company with Prof. Elrod of the Montana University, to whom I am greatly indebted for the excellent photographs of the tree here reproduced (Plate 111). They were taken on the Big Blackfoot river about twenty miles up the valley from Bonner, on the Northern Pacific Railway, where a large sawmill, managed by Mr. Kenneth Ross of the Big Blackfoot Lumber Company, has its headquarters. Guided by this gentleman we reached the logging camp in the Camas prairie and found the larch growing in deep bottom land at about 3500 feet, mixed with Pinus ponderosa and Douglas fir, but far exceeding both of them in size. The tree grows on slopes and in ravines where there is a good depth of soil not liable to dry up, and best on slopes with a north and east aspect, and on the rich detritus at their foot, and along the sides of the river. It differs strikingly from other larches in habit when adult, having very short branches, which are not produced singly or at regular intervals but grow in irregular groups of four or five, starting near together on the trunk. It forms a tall, very narrow column, and as it gets old loses many of its branches. It carries its girth to a great height and is, when grown in a thick forest, sometimes clear of branches for over 100 feet. The tallest tree I have heard of was figured in the Butte Miner of 29th February 1904, and was said to be the largest in Montana, 233 feet high and 24 feet in girth at or near the ground. This tree grew on the Upper Clearwater between Salmon and Seely lakes. It could be seen for miles above the surrounding trees, and must have contained over 2000 feet of timber. The best I saw, however, were from 150 to 180 feet in height, with a girth at 5 feet of 10 to 15 feet.
Frank Vogel, a timber surveyor who has had much experience with this tree, told me that it grew up to 6000 feet elevation on the hills above the Blackfoot river, and that he saw no difference between these trees and those lower down except in size. The age of those of which I counted the rings, and which would be about the same age as the one photographed, was 330 to 350 years, these trees showing no signs of decay. The bark in dense forest is very thin for such large trees, sometimes only 2 to 3 inches thick, and though in older and more isolated trees it attains a much greater thickness, as much as 9 to 15 inches near the ground, it struck me as not being so thick and rugged as the bark of old European larch.
The undergrowth in the forest was not dense, and was composed of Berberis aguifolium, Cornus canadensis, Linnea borealis, Symphoricarpus, Thalictrum, with violets, strawberries, and in some places that lovely little orchid Calypso boreale. There were abundant seedlings of larch and Douglas fir springing up wherever there was enough light and moisture, but in the drier parts of the forest pine only was seen. The young cones were already formed on 29th May, and I came away with the impression that though this tree may not rival the European or Japanese larches in rapidity of growth, it will be valuable in the mountains of Central Europe and will probably succeed on the better soils of England and Scotland.
With regard to the timber of the western larch, Prof. Sargent says that "it surpasses that of all other American conifers in hardness and strength, it is very durable, beautifully coloured, and free from knots; it is adapted to all sorts of construction, and beautiful furniture can be made from it. No other American wood, however, is so little known." Through the kindness of Mr. K. Ross I was able to bring back from the St. Louis Exhibition a door and frame made from this wood which fully bears out Sargent's high opinion of it.
Until a few years ago the timber of the western larch was invariably called tamarack, and was of no great commercial importance. The use of this name, which is properly applied to Larix americana, the timber of which is little esteemed, proved prejudicial to the reputation of the western larch in the eastern states. Of late years the timber merchants of Idaho and Montana insist on the use of the term larch; and large quantities of this lumber are now being exported even as far east as New York. Coarse grades are used for joints, beams, and railway ties. Finer grades are sawn into planks, used for flooring, and are converted into materials for indoor finish, as ceiling, laths, mouldings, panelling, etc. The timber is remarkably free from knots, and is variable in colour, being often nearly white, though it is usually reddish in tint. (H.J.E.)
Plate 112.
LYALL'S LARCH IN ALBERTA
LARIX LYALLII, Lyall's Larch
- Larix Lyallii, Parlatore, Enum. Sem. Hort. Reg. Mus. Flor. 1863, Journ. Bot. i. 35 (1863), and Gard. Chron. 1863, p. 916; Sargent, Gard. Chron. xxv. 653, f. 146 (1886), Silva N. Amer. xii, 15, t. 595 (1898), and Trees N. Amer. 37 (1905); Kent, Veitch's Man. Coniferæ, 399 (1900).
A tree attaining in America 80 feet in height and 12 feet in girth, but usually considerably smaller. Bark of young stems and branches thin and pale grey, on larger stems loose and scaly, on older trunks 2 inches thick and fissuring into irregular plates covered by reddish-brown loose scales. Young branchlets covered with a dense greyish tomentum, concealing the pulvini, and partly persistent on older branchlets, which become greyish black in colour. Short shoots stout and greyish pubescent. Bud-scales fringed with long cilia. Base of the long shoots girt with a sheath of the previous season's bud-scales, the uppermost of which are loose, membranous, and reflected.
Leaves bluish green, rhombic in section, deeply keeled on both surfaces, 1 to 11⁄2 inch long, rigid, ending in a sharp cartilaginous point.
Staminate flowers ovoid, acute at the apex, 1⁄3 inch long, raised on stalks 1⁄5 inch long. Pistillate flowers ovoid, with the bracts reflected about their middle, their mucros curving outwards; bract oblong, 1⁄5 inch long, truncate at the apex, the midrib being prolonged into a rigid mucro about 1⁄4 inch long.
Cones ovoid, acute at the apex, 11⁄2 to 2 inches long, on a short tomentose stalk: scales numerous, loosely imbricated, thin, ovate, of a beautiful pink colour before ripening, 1⁄2 inch long, fringed with matted hairs; outer surface sparingly pubescent: bracts extending up to the margin of the scale, with their mucros projecting beyond about 1⁄4 inch and at first directed upwards; when ripe the scales spread at right angles and finally, together with the bracts, become much reflexed. Seeds in slight depressions on the scale, with their wings narrowly divergent and not reaching its upper margin. Seed together with wing about 7% inch long; wing pale pink in colour, broadest near the base.
This species has been supposed to be an alpine form of L. occidentalis; but is readily distinguished from it by the structure of the leaves, the tomentum of the branchlets, the beautiful pink cones, which have fringed scales, and the pink-winged seeds. (A.H.)
This tree was discovered by Dr. D. Lyall when surgeon to the International Boundary Commission in British Columbia in 1858, and though I have raised seedlings which I believe to be this species, it has not as yet been introduced into cultivation either in America or Europe, though it is a tree which must have been seen by thousands of travellers while crossing the Rocky Mountains in the Canadian Pacific Railway. Plate 112 shows a typical tree growing near Laggan, and is from a negative which I purchased at Victoria.
It is a strictly alpine tree, of somewhat limited range, its northern limit being about 51° N. on the Rocky Mountains, not extending to the moister climate of the Gold or Cascade ranges in British territory, nor has it as yet been discovered in the more northern parts of British Columbia. Southwards, it extends along the Cascade Mountains of Northern Washington to Mount Stewart on the north fork of the Yakima river, and along the continental divide of the Rocky Mountains to the middle fork of Sun river and to Pend d'Oreille pass in North-Western Montana.[75] In its northern habitat—near Laggan, Alberta—I have seen it from about 5000 up to 7000 feet. Though Mr. J. Macoun reports it on a mountain near Morley as low as 4500 feet, yet Wilcox,[76] who must have seen as much of this tree as any one who has written of it, says it is rarely seen below 6000 feet, and that its extreme range of altitude might be placed between 5600 and 7600 feet.
Lyall's larch is a very beautiful tree of moderate size, from 50 to 70 feet high being about the average, with a girth of 5 to 6 feet, but on Mount Stewart Mr. Brandagee reported that it attained as much as 4 feet in diameter. Its growth is extremely slow, Wilcox having counted 30 rings of growth in a branch only % inch in diameter; whilst a tree cut by Brandagee on Mount Stewart which showed 562 annual rings was only 164 inches in diameter under the bark.
Mr. M.W. Gorman says:[77]—Near Lake Chelan it was not seen at all in the moist valleys, and was generally found to favour the passes and sheltered sides of the crest lines and divides, and here it ranges in altitude from 5800 to 7100 feet. The best grove seen was at about 6700 feet elevation near War Creek pass. The tree ranges in height from 50 to go feet, and in diameter from 10 to 25 inches. The mature tree has a rather thick greyish bark, and is well fruited with oval, mostly erect persistent cones. The branches are mostly lateral, very brittle, and quite small in proportion to the tree. The foliage changes colour with the first severe frosts about October 1.
L. Lyallii has to contend with a climate as severe as, and very similar to that of the Altai Mountains, the snow usually lying till late in June or even July, and snow and frost often occurring in July and August. The bark is rough and greyish and the branches short, irregular, brittle, and easily broken by a heavy snowfall. Wilcox says that the trees growing at the highest altitude have a curious development not found on those only a few hundred feet lower. The tufts of leaves spring from a hollow woody sheath, which is sometimes more than an inch long on the trees at high altitudes, whilst elsewhere this is not present.
The seed appears to ripen and shed early like that of the western larch, for though [ have made several attempts to procure it from friends visiting the Rockies they have been, like myself, always too early or too late, and though I tried to bring home seedlings in 1893 they died on the journey home.
It is not, however, at all likely to succeed in this country, except possibly on the higher parts of the Grampian Mountains, and even there I fear the climate will be too damp, and the winter too short for it. (H.J.E.)
Lyall's Larch in Montana
Larix Lyallii occurs in five isolated areas in the mountains of Northern Montana, between 113° and 115° E. long. and 47° 25' and 49° N. lat.
One of these localities was discovered by Prof. Elrod and myself in our ascent of the unexplored peak of St. Nicholas, which lies just west of the continental divide, about ten miles east of Nyack on the Great Northern Railway. Here about 1000 trees grow on a rocky precipitous slope, with a strictly northern aspect, and extend in scattered groves over about a mile of ground between 6600 and 7500 feet altitude. The tree is, owing to lack of moisture in the soil, unable to exist on the sunny southern slopes, where Pinus albicaulis thrives at similar altitudes. Separate groves of Engelmann's spruce accompany the Alpine larch. The largest tree measured 71 feet by 5 feet 2 inches; and another tree, felled by us, which was 8 inches in diameter, showed 220 annual rings, the sapwood with 25 rings being half an inch thick. Younger trees up to 40 feet high are gracefully pyramidal in shape, with wider branches than L. occidentalis; older trees have twisted and irregular branches and flattened crowns, the result of age, as is the case in all species of larch. The branches are remarkably brittle. On another part of the mountain, but still on the northern aspect, eighteen trees in two groups were seen at 8250 feet elevation, the tallest of which was only 10 feet high. The trees in Montana bore in 1906 only a few cones, but the crop in the preceding year had been plentiful. I procured only twenty or thirty seeds, which are now being raised at Kew. The cones in this species resemble those of the western larch in the manner in which they quickly cast their seeds in September.
The western larch in this region did not mingle with the Alpine larch, the former ascending, in company with Douglas fir, the northern slope up to 5900 feet; and between this elevation and 6600 feet, where the lowermost Alpine larch was found, no trees were growing.
Two other localities farther south are mentioned by Ayres,[78] who states that on the summit of the continental divide (long. 113°, lat. 47° 25'), between the Sun river and Willow Creek, there is a fine forest of the species, with trees about 70 feet high and 15 inches in diameter. Twenty miles due west on the summit of the range north of Pend d'Oreille pass there are a few scattered trees.
In the Whitefish range and in the mountains between the Kintla and Chief Mountain lakes, the tree is common on northern slopes from the Canadian boundary line to about 15 miles south of it. In the Whitefish range, Ayres[79] reports that the trees attain a maximum size of 80 feet by 6 feet in girth, the largest growing about the heads of basins where the snow lingers late into summer or lies in banks throughout the season. I visited the Whitefish range, which is a few miles from Fortine, on the Great Northern Railway, late in September, in company with Mr. Eastland, forest ranger, and at 7000 feet altitude could distinguish numerous groves of Alpine larch, extending over the mountains for an immense distance, as the foliage, which had turned yellow at this season, rendered the trees very conspicuous; but in all cases the groves were confined to strictly northern slopes. We encamped in a small grove, where the trees did not exceed 4o feet in height, and observed numerous seedlings; but were forced to descend on account of a heavy fall of snow and to leave the larger and more important forests unvisited.
Further east, in the Kintla lake region, Ayres[80] reports that the mountain slopes are best wooded on the northern slopes, where the Alpine larch reaches a height of 80 feet and a diameter of 30 inches. It is more vigorous here than in any other locality seen by Ayres, who considers that the tree will produce timber suitable for mining purposes. (A.H.)
- ↑ We adopt the name Larix europæa, although it is not the oldest one, because it has been in general use for over a century. According to a note at Kew of Alph. de Candolle the Flore Française, 3rd ed., was published in reality in 1805, and not in 1815, as it is printed in the volume at Kew.
- ↑ Kerner, Nat. Hist. Plants, Eng. trans., i. 722 (1898), gives the greatest certified height of the larch as 53.7 metres, equal to 176 feet; and this refers to a tree growing in Silesia, mentioned by Mathieu, loc. cit. 556.
- ↑ In the Museum at Florence there are specimens from Courmeyeur, in the Piedmontese Alps, with cones two inches in length, the largest which I have seen, and remarkable for the dense velvety pubescence of their scales.
- ↑ Referred to in London Catalogue of Trees, 43 (1730).
- ↑ Well figured in Gard. Chron. iii, 430, 531, Supplementary Illustration (1888). Var. pendula, Lawson, is figured in Gard. Chron. ii. 684, fig. 132 (1887).
- ↑ Cf. Beissner, Nadelholzkunde, 325, fig. 89 (1891).
- ↑ Gard. Mag. 1841, p. 353. Another weeping larch is figured in the same journal, 1839, p. 574.
- ↑ Waldbauliche Studien über die Lärche, 4 (1904).
- ↑ Borzi, Flora Forestale Italiana, 25 (1879).
- ↑ See Garden and Forest, 1895, p. 238, for a résumé of M. Coaz's monograph on "Insect Ravages in the Forests of Larch on the High Alps."
- ↑ Forêts de la Roumanie, 6.
- ↑ Zeit. für Forst. und Jagdwesen, Oct. 1904, p. 644.
- ↑ Silva, Hunter's ed., 1776, p. 297.
- ↑ Prof. Fisher tells me that on old roads, and other places where the soil has been exposed, on the shores of Lake Vyrnwy in Wales, and also on old pit banks in Dean Forest, he has seen numerous self-sown larches spring up.
- ↑ Prof. Fisher tells me that in Germany larch seed is extracted from the cones by a toothed axis rotating in a drum, also lined with shorter teeth, and driven by water or steam power.
- ↑ For further particulars concerning the purity and germinative power of larch seed from different sources, cf. Fron, Analyse et Controle des Semences Forestières, 92 (1906).
- ↑ It is a regular practice in some nurseries where large quantities of larch are raised from seed to soak it for a day or more in water, and then spread it out on a floor where it is daily turned over and sprinkled with water until it seems ready to germinate. By adopting this practice the germination is quicker and more regular.
- ↑ Prof. H.M. Ward gave in Nature, xxxvii. 207 (1887), the following account of an experiment conducted by Prof. Hartig:—"There is a plantation of larches at Freising, near Munich, with young beeches growing under the shade of the larches. The latter are seventy years old, and are excellent trees in every way. About twenty years ago these larches were deteriorating seriously, and were subsequently underplanted with beech, as foresters say, i.e. beech plants were introduced under the shade of the larches. The recovery of the latter is remarkable, and dates from the period when the underplanting was made. The explanation is based on the observation that the fallen beech-leaves keep the soil covered, and protect it from being warmed too early in the spring by the heat of the sun's rays. This delays the spring growth of the larches; their cambium is not awakened into renewed activity until three weeks or a month later than was previously the case, and hence they are not severely tried by the spring frosts, and the cambium is vigorously and continuously active from the first. But this is not all. The timber is much improved; the annual rings contain a smaller proportion of soft, light spring wood, and more of the desirable summer and autumn wood consisting of closely-packed, thick-walled elements. The explanation of this is that the spring growth is delayed until the weather and soil are warmer, and the young leaves in full activity; whence the cambium is better nourished from the first, and forms better tracheides throughout its whole active period."
- ↑ Journ. Roy. Agr. Soc. lxiv. 36 (1903).
- ↑ Gard. Chron. 1859, p. 1015.
- ↑ The Larch Disease (1860).
- ↑ Journ. Roy. Hort. Soc. 1892, P. 170.
- ↑ Cf. Gard. Chron. xxxvi. 181, figs. 70, 71 (1904).
- ↑ Quarterly Journal of Forestry, i. p. 67 (1907).
- ↑ Mr. T.E. Groom of Hereford writes to me that he measured several of these trees himself, and has a clear recollection that two of them were over 140 feet long as topped for sale, where they would be 5 or 6 inches in diameter. The quarter-girth under bark half-way up was, however, only about 14 inches, which gives their cubic content as about 190 feet.
- ↑ Michie, The Larch, 63 (1885).
- ↑ Economic History of the Hebrides and Highlands, ii, 214 (1812).
- ↑ I was told by Mr. Keir in 1906 that the largest tree had lately been struck by lightning and was now quite dead.
- ↑ In Old and Remarkable Trees of Scotland, p. 64, it is stated that a larch at Ben-an, in the parish of Inveraray, was 130 feet high and 10 feet in girth at 3 feet, and others are reported at Glenarbuck, in the county or Dumbarton, and at Auchintorlie, in the same county, 143 feet and 140 feet high, but these latter measurements are not reliable, and have never been confirmed. Mr. Renwick has recently measured the Auchintorlie tree, and finds it only 95 feet high.
- ↑ Trans. Scot. Arb. Soc. xi. 505.
- ↑ The Larch (1885).
- ↑ Op. cit. 31st Aug. 1872, p. 1161.
- ↑ Schmid u. Francke, Baum Album der Schweiz (1900).
- ↑ Karsten u. Schenck, Vegetationsbilder, ii. tt. 25–28 (1905).
- ↑ This name is quoted wrongly as Larix Ledebourii, Ruprecht, in Index Kewensis, ii. 31, and in Sargent, Silva N. Amer, xii. 4.
- ↑ Tent. Fl. Rossia Orientalis, 493 (1898).
- ↑ Act. Hort. Petrop. xii. 101 (1892).
- ↑ Loc. cit.
- ↑ Plant. Romaniæ, 139 (1881). Cf. also Janka, Flora Siebenbergens, xvi. 366 (1866).
- ↑ See distribution of the European larch.
- ↑ Loc. cit. and Naturw. Stud. Nordw. Russl. Allg. Forst. u. J.-w. 1900.
- ↑ Siberia in Europe, 174 (1886).
- ↑ Though this is the oldest correct name under the genus, I have not adopted it, as it has been erroneously applied to the American larch, and its use now would cause considerable confusion.
- ↑ Cultivated specimens, as those from Boynton and Murthly Castle, occasionally have slightly pubescent scales; but the cones and seeds in all other respects are typical of L. dahurica.
- ↑ Act. Hort. Petrop. xii. 98 (1892).
- ↑ Larix kamtschatica, Carr.
- ↑ Floræ Manshuriæ, i. 190 (1901).
- ↑ Act. Hort. Petrop. xii, 424 (1892).
- ↑ Uttermost East, 105 (1903).
- ↑ According to Loudon, op. cit. 2401, Solander's description was taken from the tree at Mill Hill, which, according to Lambert's figure, must have been L. dahurica.
- ↑ Fl. Amer. Sept. ii, 645 (1814).
- ↑ We adopt this spelling on Dr. Mayr's authority, as the correct Aino name for the island. Eterofu is the Japanese form of the word, and Eterop a corrupt combination of both forms of spelling.
- ↑ In Mitt. Deutsche Dendr. Ges. 1906, p. 27, the age of this tree is stated erroneously as twenty-five to thirty years. Its height in 1906 is given as 9 metres.
- ↑ Pinus leptolepis was the name preferred by Endlicher; but he quotes Larix leptolepis, Hort., as a synonym; and as this is the first publication of Larix leptolepis, Endlicher is responsible for the name, and it is credited to him; and being the first published name under the correct genus is adopted by us. Moreover, it is the name by which this species is universally known; and the adoption of Sargent's name, Larix Kaempferi, would cause great confusion, as this has been used for Pseudolarix Kaempferi, the golden larch of China. The Japanese larch, though known to Kaempfer and Thunberg in the eighteenth century and mentioned by Lambert, was first described by Lindley in 1833.
- ↑ Larix japonica, A. Murray, Pines and Firs of Japan, 94 (1863).
Larix leptolepis, var. minor, A. Murray, Proc. Roy. Hort. Soc. ii. 633, f. 155 (1862).
Larix leptolepis, var. Murrayana, Maximowicz, Ind. Sem. Hort. Petrop. 1866, p. 3.
Larix japonica, var. microcarpa, Carrière, Conif. 354 (1867).
Larix Kaempferi, var. minor, Sargent, Silva N. Amer, xii, 2, adnot. 2 (1898).
Abies leptolepis, Lindley, Gard. Chron. 1861, p. 23. - ↑ See note by Mr. Massee in Journ. Board Agriculture, 501 (1904).
- ↑ Trans. Scot. Arb. Soc. xix. 77 (1906).
- ↑ Gard. Chron. xxxix. 282 (1906).
- ↑ Cf Trans. Roy. Scot. Arbor. Soc. xviii, 62 (1905).
- ↑ Mitt. Deutsche Dend. Ges. 1906, p. 29.
- ↑ Masters, loc. cit.
- ↑ Himalayan Journals, i. 255.
- ↑ Gard. Chron., loc. cit.
- ↑ After this was printed a good illustration of the tree appeared in the same journal on 2nd March 1907, which shows that it is not only larger, but a better shaped tree than the one I have figured.
- ↑ Gard. Chron. xxvii. 296 (1900).
- ↑ Bell in Scottish Geogr. Mag. xi. 283.
- ↑ Can. For. Ass. Annual Report, 1905, Pp. 59.
- ↑ According to Sargent this is Nematus Erichsonii, Hartig, a European insect which was not much noticed in America before 1880, and which has recently attacked the larch in England. Cf. supra, p. 364.
- ↑ Op. cit. 2400, 2401. The original tree at Whitton was between 40 and 50 feet high in 1837: it has long since been cut down.
- ↑ Veitch's Man. Coniferæ, 390 note (1900).
- ↑ Comp. Bot. Mag. ii. 109 (1830), where Douglas states that he measured trees 30 feet in girth.
- ↑ Mr. Cohoon, Forest Assistant in the Northern Division of the Cascade Forest Reserve, wrote to me in 1906 as follows: "The only locality in which larch came under my observation in the reserve was on the east slope of the Cascade Mountains about 15 miles west of Durfur, Oregon. It did not occur abundantly, but was more or less scattered, in mixture with yellow pine, red fir, and lodge-pole pine. It was found on moist but well-drained soil at an altitude of about 2500 to 3000 feet." He adds that he never saw it west of the summit of the Cascades, which he has travelled over from Columbia river to California.
At Bridal Veil, Oregon, and other places on the Pacific slope, the term larch is erroneously applied to Abies nobilis. - ↑ U.S. Geol, Survey, Flathead Forest Reserve, 256, 314 (1900).
- ↑ Garden and Forest, ix. 491 (1896), where there is an article on the tree, with an illustration of the trunk, fig. 71, showing the very thick bark.
- ↑ Sheldon, in Forest Wealth of Oregon, says that it is "rare on the high peaks of the Wallowa Mountains."
- ↑ The Rockies of Canada, 63 (1900).
- ↑ US. Geol. Survey, Eastern Part of Washington Forest Reserve (1899). Mr. Gorman calls the tree L. occidentalis; but his specimens, which we have seen, are labelled L. Lyallii by himself, and are this species.
- ↑ U.S. Geol. Survey, Lewis and Clarke Forest Reserve, 42, 43 (1900).
- ↑ U.S. Geol. Survey, Flathead Forest Reserve, 268 (1900).
- ↑ U.S. Geol. Survey, Flathead Forest Reserve, 277 (1900).