2 THE LARCH. 



Swiss Alps, of other mountainous districts towards the 

 north of Europe, and of some districts in the north of 

 Asia, and was introduced from Germany into Britain 

 about the year 1629. Its trunk is straight and tall, 

 and its outline is conical or pyramidal. Its branches 

 grow in a remotely whorled arrangement, and for the 

 most part spread horizontally from the trunk, but oc- 

 casionally, and especially when old, are somewhat pen- 

 dulous. Its leaves are linear, soft, rounded or blunt at 

 the point, and of a pleasant light-green colour, spread- 

 ing and slightly recurved round a central bud, or 

 bunched together with a somewhat similar appearance 

 to the pencils or little brushes of the painter. The 

 male catkins are stalkless, somewhat globular, and of a 

 bright yellow colour, and are shed in April and May. 

 The female flowers or embryo cones vary from a whitish 

 to a bright reddish colour, and appear about the same 

 time as the male catkins. The cones are erect, fully an 

 inch long, of an oblong-ovate form, and deepen in 

 colour as they ripen. The cone scales are persistent, 

 roundish, and striated ; while the bracteas, especially 

 those towards the lower part of the cones, are generally 

 longer than the scales. The seeds are fully an eighth 

 of an inch long, and have an irregular or ovate form, 

 and each has from five to seven cotyledons, and is 

 more than half enveloped in a persistent, smooth, 

 shining perisperm. 



" The Larix jpendida, or black larch, is not so generally 

 known in this country as it ought to be. It differs 

 from the European species in the following particu- 



