90 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



tufts of deciduous leaves ; from the European larch, by the 

 smallness of its cones and the shortness of its leaves. 



It has a straight, erect, rapidly tapering trunk, clothed with 

 a bluish gray bark, rather rough, with small roundish scales. 

 The branches are numerous, very irregular and horizontal, or 

 nearly so. The recent shoots, which are very slender, have a 

 grayish red bark, which on older branches becomes brown, and 

 finally, as on the trunk, blue gray. 



The leaves are an inch long, in circular tufts round a central 

 bud, except on the growing shoots, where they are alternate. 

 They are linear, flattened, obscurely four-sided, sessile and 

 obtusely pointed at the end; of an agreeable light bluish green, 

 and differ from those of all the other cone- bearing trees by the 

 delicacy of their texture. Late in autumn they turn to a soft, 

 leather-yellow color, and, in the first days of November, fall. 



The sterile flowers are in solitary, erect catkins, which take 

 the place of the fascicles of leaves towards the ends of the 

 branches ; they are nearly round, one-fourth of an inch long, 

 and composed of rounded, yellow anthers closely arranged. 

 The fertile flowers are in erect, solitary catkins, about the mid- 

 dle of the branches, half an inch long, and made up of a few 

 floral leaves or scales. Around the base of the catkins are other 

 scales resembling leaves half transformed, by a dilated wing on 

 each side, into fertile scales. The true scales have a project- 

 ing point when in flower, but afterwards become nearly circu- 

 lar, slightly bent in at the edge, and have, within each, two 

 seeds with a scaly wing; the scales and wings are of a pleasant 

 crimson red. The flowering season is May. 



The range of the hacmatack is from the mountains of Vir- 

 ginia to Hudson's Bay. At Point Lake, in latitude 65°, it 

 attains, according to Dr. Richardson, to the height of only six 

 to eight feet. It is found in cold swamps in most parts of this 

 State ; but attains its greatest perfection in a region consider- 

 ably farther to the north. 



The wood of the larch is very close-grained and compact, of a 

 reddish or gray color, and remarkable for its weight, and its great 

 strength and durability. In these respects, it is superior to all 

 the other pines, and is surpassed only by the oak. Its dura- 



