MONTANA BOTANY NOTES ■ 15 



The cones are resinous, light but ofen 8 inches long, few ana almost al- 

 ways at or near the tip of the. tree. The bark is olive-gray and smooth 

 on all the branches and even the trunk for many feet down. Bark of 

 the main trunk below is light-gray, cracked into small rectangular and 

 oblong areas 1 to 2 inches long which are not flaky and never over an 

 inch thick and flat-topped. Outline of tree is linear with an acuminate 

 tip. It branches like the lodgepole pine but is more open and with branches 

 longer and flexible. It grows along the Swan Lake road sparingly in moist 

 places and in the fir forests near the Hemlocks in the most magnificent 

 proportions. It is remarkably free from knots. The wood is white and 

 soft. It is considered the best timber tree of all, but is not plentiful. 

 Not found on McDonald peak nor on any of the islands. Lake McDonald, 

 Umbach. Locally abundant in the Lake McDonald region. 



LARIX, LARCH, TAMARACK. 



Alpine, twigs and bud scales woolly. L. Lyallii. 



Plants of the Middle Temperate life zone. Twigs and scales smooth. 



L. occidentalis. 



Though the larch differs superficially from Picea in a marked degree 

 in the deciduous and fascicled secondary leaves, yet it is closely related 

 to it in all permanent characters as is shown by the development of the 

 young plants and the character of the primary leaves. Its arrangement 

 with the pines is a wholly artificial one for ease in classification. 



Larix Lyallii Pari. Enum. Sem. Hort. Reg. Mus. PI. 259 (1863). Alpine 

 larch. This tree grows at and near timber line on the high peaks. It is 

 seldom 100 feet high and branches rather low down into one to three 

 large and candelabrum-like divisions which are mostly erect above the 

 curved base. The trunk is large for the height and straight, seldom making 

 more than one length of good lumber. The bark and wood are much the 

 same as in the western larch. It grows on rocky slopes and among glacial 

 boulders, never in wet places. In our region it has not been found on the 

 Flathead Lake side of any of the ranges but occurs on the eastern side 

 <9f the Swan range in the alpine basins but sparingly. It has been found 

 on Elrod peak, Mt. Lo Lo, also by Jones in the main range west of Hamil- 

 ton. It also occurs on Mt. Haggin back of Anaconda and protoably south- 

 westward to the Sawtooth and Seven Devils mountains, Idaho and the Blue 

 Mountains or "Wallowas of eastern Oregon. It extends northward into 

 British America and westward. Not seen in the Sperry Glacier region. 



The following field study of Larix Lyallii growing on Como peak was 

 made this year. Subalpine. Young trees much like L. occidentalis but more 

 widely branched. Bark rough and cracking up into irregular and thick 

 flakes like Pinus Murrayana on the base of trees that were only 4 Inches 

 thick. Upper bark light gray and smooth, powdery or granular. Two-» 

 year-old twigs the same in color and with thin hair-like flakes or fibrous 

 shreds. Last year's twigs chestnut-colored and woolly. Season's twigs were 

 woolly and green and with single leaves as in the other species. Regular 

 leaves needle like and a little tapering at fbase, very soft, about an inch 

 long. Cones erect even when the twigs are pendent. g-cales erose and 

 puberulent at tip, deep purple. Branches very slender and pendent often. 

 Outline of old trees ovate. Branches large, dichotomously several times 

 branched. Habit more that of Pseudotsuga tout more open. Branches 

 either ascending or drooping. Trunks sometimes forked and candelabrum- 

 like, but mosfly simple. 



Larix occidentalis Nutt. Sylva 3 143 t. 120 (1849). W^estern Larch. Tam- 

 arack. The young season's branches have raised ridges along the stem 

 like the spruce, which end abruptly in an oblique scar to which the pri- 

 mary leaves are jointed, but this scar is not horizontal at the end of a 

 short and woody and persistent pedicel as in the spruces, but the leaves 

 of both are single in a place like the firs. The second year the twigs 



