94 CONIFEROUS TREES 



and interesting species, but one about which 

 much difference of opinion exists, owing to the 

 presence of certain characteristics which we 

 associate with the spruce and the silver firs. 

 Unfortunately the tree has not been found well 

 suited for cultivation in this country, it wearing, 

 even in very favourable situations, a by no means 

 prepossessing appearance. The branches are stiff 

 and horizontally placed, the branchlets sub- 

 pendulous, and the foliage rather sparsely pro- 

 duced and irregular of arrangement, sometimes 

 scattered, sometimes two-ranked or spirally ar- 

 ranged. Each leaf is broad, flat, sabre-shaped, 

 I inch long, deep green above, and lighter beneath. 

 The cones are produced singly at the branch tips, 

 stand half erect, are 6 inches long by ij inches 

 wide, cylindrical or tapering somewhat from base 

 to apex, and with long-persistent scales, the 

 bracts being shorter than these. 



LARIX, Miller 



THE LARCHES 



Flowers monoecious ; male catkins egg-shaped ; females 

 erect, solitary, ovate. 



Cones globose to cylindrical. 



Scales leathery, persistent, and undulated. 



Bracts mostly lanceolate, longer or shorter than the scales. 



Seeds without resin canals, with a leathery covering, and 

 furnished with an oblong membranaceous wing. 



Cotyledons five to eight, three-cornered, flat. 



Leaves deciduous, tufted or singly, linear, soft. 



Large-growing deciduous trees, with the leaves arranged 

 either singly on long shoots or in bundles on short spurs. 



Larix AMERICANA, Michuux. Tamarack or 



