100 CONIFEROUS TREES 



to be of such good quality and is liable to twist 

 and warp. 



L. PENDULA, Salisbury. Hybrid Larch. (Syn- 

 onyms : L. dahurica, Hort. non Turczaninow ; L. 

 americana pendula, Loudon ; Pinus pendula, 

 Solander.) — This interesting larch, now considered 

 by Professor Henry to be the result of a chance 

 cross between Larix americana and L, europcea, 

 has been confused with L. dahurica, the Wild Larch 

 of Eastern Asia. The original tree from which 

 Solander drew up his description grew first at 

 Peckham, but was afterwards removed to Mill Hill 

 by Peter Collinson, a well-known cultivator of 

 trees, about 1739. This tree, which was cut down 

 in 1800, was remarkable for its extraordinary 

 vigour, bearing great quantities of cones with ripe 

 seed every year.^ All the trees of Larix pendula 

 now in cultivation are believed to be descendants 

 of the original tree at Mill Hill, being hybrids 

 of the second, third, and fourth generations, 

 and, as is the case with such descendants, are 

 not identical in appearance with the original 

 first cross, but exhibit every possible combina- 

 tion of the parental characters. Some are like 

 L. europcea, others resemble L. americana, and 

 others are intermediate in character. Seedlings 

 raised from trees of L, pendula appear to be equally 

 variable. An old tree in the Pinetum at Wobum 

 is believed to be the finest specimen of L. pendula 

 in Great Britain, being now over 90 feet high and 



^ A branch from this tree with flowers and cones is figured in 

 Lambert's work on Pinus and also in the Pinetum Woburnense, and 

 the specimens from the tree at Mill Hill on which Solander founded 

 his original description of this larch are still preserved at the Natural 

 History Museum. 



