NOTES AND QUERIES. 22 1 



brown; the axillary buds are very slightly overlapped at the 

 base by the subtending pulvinus, while the terminal buds 

 are surrounded with partly acute and partly mucronate scales. 

 The leaves are always covered with a glaucous bloom, as in 

 the Japanese larch, but the two stomatic bands beneath are 

 not so white as in that species. The female flowers are deep 

 pink, but the bracts are reflexed. The cones resemble in shape 

 those of the European species ; the scales are loosely appressed, 

 the upper margins slightly reflexed, the basal half of the outer 

 surface pubescent; the bracts are mostly exserted, but the tips 

 do not project externally so conspicuously as in L. europaea ; 

 the peduncle is yellow. 



As regards the microscopic characters the resin-canals of the 

 pulvini of the young twigs are oval, as in L. leptokpis ; those of 

 the leaves of the long shoots are situated as in L. europaea, but 

 may be separated from the epidermis by two layers of cells 

 instead of one as in the latter. The resin-canals of the leaves 

 of the short shoots are minute and indistinct, or obliterated, as 

 L. europaea, while the epidermal cells of both kinds of leaves are 

 intermediate in character, being papillate in the centre and on 

 the outer edges, but smooth elsewhere, while those of Japanese 

 larch are all papillate and those of the European all smooth. 

 Prof. H. Dixon has suggested a theory explaining the function 

 of the papillose epidermal cells of the Japanese larch ; he 

 believes that they enable this species to absorb more light and 

 thus render it more tolerant of shade. 



In the hybrid the fibro-vascular bundles of the leaves 

 are large, as in the Japanese form, but equidistant from both 

 surfaces, as in the European species. A table is given, showing 

 the stomatic lines of the leaves in the three forms, which again 

 emphasises the intermediate character of the hybrid. 



Prof. Henry emphasises the vigour and good health of the 

 plantations of the Dunkeld hybrid which he has seen, and 

 states that at Tubney Arboretum, Oxford, a group of fourteen 

 trees, planted in 1909, has surpassed in height a group of 

 Japanese larches, planted three years earlier. The branches 

 of the hybrid are ascending, and the crown narrower than in 

 the Japanese form. 



The article is accompanied by a plate, showing the mature 

 cones of the three forms, and a series of leaf-sections, showing 

 the resin-canals and the position of the fibro-vascular bundles. 



