PINACE^ 295 



clean. Attempts have been made to make use of this species 

 for silvicnltural purposes in Britain, but as far as can be judged 

 at present it cannot compete satisfactorily with either the Euro- 

 pean or Japanese species. Trial plantations have been started 

 in several parts of the country/ but the results are not such as 

 to warrant its being planted on a large scale. A small plantation 

 was estabhshed at Kew in 1913, from plants raised from seeds 

 sown in 1909. The young trees were placed C ft. apart each way. 

 About 50 per cent, are now (1922) 18-25 ft. high, the largest 

 being 15 in. in girth. The remainder range from weakly plants 

 3-4 ft. high to trees 15-18 ft. in height. Brambles have been 

 allowed to grow in the centre of the plantation, and most of the 

 best trees are to be found there. Grass has grown amongst the 

 trees on the outskirts, and here well- developed trees are few in 

 number. A small group of European larch planted with the 

 Western larch are better developed. The older trees at Kew 

 cone freely, but rarely produce fertile seed. 



Bot. Mag. t. 8253 (1909). 



Larix olgensis, A. Henry.^ 

 Olga Bay Larch. 



A small or medium-sized tree. Young shoots slender, brown, 

 densely covered with reddish brown hairs, the remains of which 

 may be found on older wood. Branches grey. Buds shining 

 dark brown, those of the short shoots with a circle of reddish 

 brown hairs at the base. Leaves short, slender, |— f in. long, 

 curved, rounded and blunt at the apex, upper surface rounded, 

 lower surface prominently keeled with a stomatic line on each 

 side of the keel. Resin canals present in the leaves of long shoots, 

 rudimentary or absent in the leaves of short shoots. Cones 

 ^-f in. long, composed of 20-30 scales, each nearly ^ in. across, 

 and with rounded and entire margins, the outer surface covered 

 with dense, short down, the tips of the bracts protruding beyond 

 the scales. Seeds about iV in. long with a wing | in. long. 



L. olgensis is closely related to L. kurilensis, and may be 

 merely an unusually hairy form of that species, or, taken in a 

 wide sense, a geographical form of L. dahurica. The cones of 

 herbarium specimens at Kew are, however, larger than those 

 of L. kurilensis grown at Kew. 



The Olga Bay larch is found about Olga and Valdimar Bays, 

 about 120 miles N.E. of Vladivostok, growing under very cold 

 conditions, the average temperature being said to be 40° Fahr. 

 and the average maximum temperature 68° Fahr. A dried 

 specimen at Kew was collected in 1860 by Maximowicz, and 

 further specimens were sent home from Olga Bay in 1911 by 



1 Henry in Quart. Journ. Forest, 161 (1922). 



2 Oard, Chron. Feb. 27, 1915, 109. 



