LARIX AMERICANA, MICHX. 3 



Habit. The only New England conifer that drops its leaves 

 in the fall ; a tree 30-70 feet high, reduced at great eleva- 

 tions to a height of 1-2 feet, or to a shrub ; trunk 1-3 feet 

 in diameter, straight, slender ; branches very irregular or in 

 indistinct whorls, for the most part nearly horizontal; often 

 ending in long spire-like shoots ; branchlets numerous, head 

 conical, symmetrical while the tree is young, especially when 

 growing in open swamps ; when old extremely variable, occa- 

 sionally with contorted or drooping limbs ; foliage pale green, 

 turning to a dull yellow in autumn. 



Bark. Bark of trunk reddish or grayish brown, sepa- 

 rating at the surface into small roundish scales in old trees, 

 in young trees smooth ; season's shoots gray or light brown 

 in autumn. 



Winter Buds and Leaves. Buds small, globular, reddish. 



Leaves simple, scattered along the season's shoots, clustered 

 on the short, thick dwarf branches, about an inch long, pale 

 green, needle-shaped ; apex obtuse ; sessile. 



Inflorescence. March to April. Flowers lateral, solitary, 

 erect ; the sterile from leafless, the fertile from leafy dwarf 

 branches; sterile roundish, sessile; anthers yellow: fertile 

 oblong, short-stalked ; bracts crimson or red. 



Fruit. Cones upon dwarf branches, erect or inclining 

 upwards, ovoid to cylindrical, \- f of an inch long, purplish 

 or reddish brown while growing, light brown at maturity, 

 persistent for at least a year ; scales thin, obtuse to truncate ; 

 edge entire, minutely toothed or erose ; seeds small, winged. 



Horticultural Value. Hardy in New England ; grows in 

 any good soil, preferring moist locations ; the formal outline 

 of the young trees becomes broken, irregular, and picturesque 

 with age, making the mature tree much more attractive than 

 the European species common to cultivation. Barely for sale 

 in nurseries, but obtainable from collectors. To be success- 

 fully transplanted, it must be handled when dormant. Prop- 

 agated from seed. 



Note. The European species, with which the mature plant is often 

 confused, has somewhat longer leaves and larger cones ; a form common 

 in cultivation has long, pendulous branches. 



