50 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



dry atmosphere of the Alpine highlands, the larch, when planted 

 there on good, strong clay soils, can stand in tolerably dense 

 masses, and can also bear mixture with the silver fir, in consequence 

 of the lighter needle-growth which the latter tree makes there ; but 

 on the northern slopes of the German mountains, and even on the 

 plains, where there is more cloud, a moister air, and a consequently 

 denser growth of the fir needles, the larch does not succeed in 

 mixture with the silver fir. In the latter regions it shuns the 

 zone of the fir and pine, and holds to that of the oak and the 

 beech. If it fails there, this must be due either to the soil or to 

 the exposure. 



Of course the larch grows best in its natural home in the Alps ; 

 but in the northern Alps and in the German mountains its growth 

 in the pine and fir zone is inferior to that which it develops in the 

 low-lying hills and plains, that is to say, in the zone of the oak and 

 the beech. 



[In connection with above, reference may be made to what is 

 said on the subject of the Larch Disease at pp. 32-35 of Vol. XVI. 

 of the Transactions, in connection with the Novar Working Plan. 

 — Hon. Ed.] 



II. The Japanese Larch (Larix leptolepis). 



The author is unable to agree in the optimistic views of Von 

 Alten, Schwappach, and other writers, regarding the prospects 

 of the Japanese larch as a forest tree into Germany. He quotes 

 Mayr's statements that if we compare the life-history and growth 

 of the Japanese conifers with those of their German relatives, we 

 shall arrive at the conclusion that none of the former possess any 

 outstanding advantage over the latter, which are indeed the more 

 valuable ; that it is still doubtful whether, anywhere in Germany, 

 the Japanese species will attain profitable dimensions, while it is 

 tolerably certain that no Japanese trees from the Chestnut Zone 

 will, in a climate to which they are unaccustomed, attain the size 

 to which they grow in their native land. From this, says Mayr, 

 it appears that the rearing and naturalisation of Japanese trees 

 for purposes of economic wood-production is more diflBcult, and 

 the result is more doubtful, than it is in the case of North 

 American forest trees; and, where these latter will not succeed, 

 we may reasonably decline to experiment with Japanese species. 



