G1>0 SKETCH OF THE CONIFERS OF JAPAN. 



this rausliroom tlie ulcers on their horses aud horned cattle; in 

 the same way the American savages hnow how to appreciate as a 

 remedy a mushroom of the Larch, which, judging from a speci- 

 men which Dr. Julius has had the kindness to send us (Slehold), 

 perfectly resembles the Ebiiriko of the Ainos," 



The smaller variety was found by Mr. Veitch on Mount 

 Fasiyama at an elevation of from 8000 to 8500 feet, and he 

 mentions that it is remarkable as being the tree which grows at 

 the greatest elevation on that mountain. At these high ele- 

 vations it becomes a stunted bush, no higher than 1| or 3 feet. 



It is not quite certain that the specimens brought home by 

 Mr. Veitch really belong to Siebold's A. Leptolepis. Undoubtedly 

 there are points in which they do not agree with it ; but, on the 

 whole, they come so close to it that, if not absolutely the same, 

 Mr. Veitch's tree can only be looked upon as a climatal variety. 

 Fusiyama being much further south than the locality assigned to his 

 species by Siebold, it is not improbable that this may be the case. 



The differences between the two are the following : — Siebold 

 says of the pulvini that they are " angularly decurrent, equally 

 thick throughout^ convex, and wholly adpressed to the branch." 

 This disposition will be seen in fig. 156, Nvhich is copied from 

 Siebolds work. Figs. 164 and 165 show the same parts in Mr. 

 Veitch's tree. It is there apparent that they are not equally thick 

 throughout, each being encroached upon by its neighbour at its 

 lower half. Another discrepancy is the size of the cones and 

 immber of their scales. Mr, Veitch's specimens vary in these 

 points; but none of them approach the size of Siebold's, and 

 even the largest are a long way from possessing the number of 

 scales shown by Siebold- Mr. Veitch's smallest cone has 26 

 scales; his largest one has 40; while the number shown in 

 Siebold's figure gives 30 on the side figured, so that there 

 cannot be much less than 00 if both sides are taken into 

 account, or probably even more. Again, Siebold says that the 

 scales are much more numerous in A. Leptolepis than in the 

 Common Larch, Now, in an average Larch cone the number of 

 scales is about 50, so that if they are much more numerous, 

 they cannot well be less than 70 — a number sufficiently cor- 

 responding with Siebold's figure to show that it is probably 

 correct on this point. Another point where they are seemingly 

 inconsistent is the length of the leaves; but this is due to 

 Siebold's figure representing them in the short 'phase when only 

 starting on their growth. His description assigns from 6 to 14 



