LARCH CONES 147 



expressive language — so far only, in deference to 

 timidity we hasten to explain, as pertains to their 

 drawing-up conditions for classification according to 

 weight. In that case we should like to suggest 

 arranging these trees, as do the managers of such 

 scenic effects above referred to, into three classes, 

 according to weight and size, and label them heavy, 

 middle, and feather or bantam. In the heavy-weight 

 division, as bearing the largest-sized cones, we place 

 first the Larix Griffithii, and as his proxime accessit 

 the P. L. Kaemferi. Among the middle weights, 

 and defining them as averaging in length from i in. 

 to I J in., we place the L. Europaea, L. Leptolepis, the 

 ex-Dahurian (now called Pendula), the Sibirica, 

 Lyalli, and Occidentalis, whose cones scale in weight 

 the lightest of this lot, while those of the Japanese, 

 with their self-evident re flexed scales, are the most 

 rotund and tubbiest of shape. The bract manifesta- 

 tions and the light the^^ shed on the scene we have 

 already discussed, in reference especially to the Occi- 

 dentalis and Lyalli. Of the remaining three of these 

 Larch trees so classified — namely, the European, 

 Pendula, and Sibirica — their cones are of such apparent 

 sameness that their differentiation becomes a puzzle, 

 which Lord Dundreary might have reasonably in- 

 cluded as among those problems which " no fellah 

 could understand." 



We had almost overlooked the bantams. They 

 are represented in the competition by the Tamarac 

 and Kurile Larches, and the tininess of their cones 

 eases the situation for identifiers as far as they are 

 concerned. 



Finally, on this question it may be said that Larch 

 trees are more obliging in their ways and means of 

 dispensing information to those who seek it, by dis- 

 plays of cones, than are most others of their coniferous 

 kith and kin. As a rule their fruits are very forthcoming. 

 II 



