THE LARCH IN GERMAN FORESTS. 53 



If deprived of these advantages, it must be tied to a stake, which 

 can only be done in early youth, and is out of the question as a 

 forest operation. 



Although the advantages of good soil in the production of 

 larger needles and an earlier spring growth, with a consequent 

 better ripening of the new wood in autumn, are recognised, yet, 

 even under these advantageous conditions, the author has noticed 

 a failure to lignify, which exposes the shoots of the year to 

 damage by autumn frost. In youth, when plants are growing 

 vigorously and making shoots 3 feet long, failure to ripen is not 

 so serious a matter as it becomes when the annual height-growth 

 is reduced to a couple of inches. 



The rapid growth in height of L. leptolepis is certainly remark- 

 able if we compare it with that of L. europcea. The latter species 

 demands the best of soil, much sunshine, and a dry atmosphere ; 

 high quality of soO, however, not compensating for lack of sun- 

 shine. In youth the Japanese species is to a certain extent 

 more adaptable than the other. Provided its water require- 

 ments are satisfied, it appears then to stand more lateral pressure 

 than the European larch does, but in a dry locality it needs more 

 light. A plantation of L. leptolepis made among ferns 5 feet 

 high, mixed with buckthorn, showed quite phenomenal develop- 

 ment, and but little susceptibility to the pi'essure of the surround- 

 ing growth. 



The Japanese larch sends out mighty shoots which its great 

 one-yeax'-old needles are well able to nourish ; and thus, in its 

 first five to ten years, it outstrips the European species, which 

 soon broadens out if it has room, and assumes a bushy habit with 

 short and strong shoots. The number of buds on the terminal 

 shoots, and on those adjoining them, may be the same on the two 

 species ; but the European larch makes but one-half or one-third 

 of the growth of the other, so that, in a given length of stem, the 

 former has twice or three times the number of side-shoots that 

 the latter has ; and it follows that, since the European bears 

 more shade than the Japanese larch, and gets rid of its branches 

 more slowly, it must, after a time, steadily overhaul the latter. 

 The sensitiveness of L. leptolepis in regard to cover is so great, 

 that the shade of the principal shoots causes the death of the 

 secondary shoots through the non-ripening of their short tips, 

 even when the tree is in an altogether free position. While in 

 the case of the European larch, the oldest shoots are also the 



