

THE LARCH. 



CHAPTEE L 



BOTANICAL CHARACTERISTICS. 



The larch — botanically La^^ix — is a genus of hardy, 

 deciduous timber trees, of the first division of the coni- 

 ferous order. It differs from all the other genera of the 

 lir sub-order, except cedars, in having its leaves chiefly 

 solitary on the young shoots, but always fasciculated 

 on the old twigs, with the bud of a future growth of 

 leaves in the centre of its fascicle. It differs also from 

 the other firs and from the pines in the form of its 

 stigma, which is neither bifid nor trifid, as in their 

 case, but semi-globular, cupped, and glandular. Again, 

 CNjit differs from all trees of the same tribe in being 

 "•^ deciduous, and from cedars in the scales of its cones 

 * being of a much less proportionate breadth, and having 

 a pretty regular round or oval form. 



C3 " The European or common white larch (Zarix euro- 

 c — y 



pcea), called by Linnaeus Pinus larix, is a native of the 



