298 A HANDBOOK OF CONIFERiE 



and that it is the common larch of W. Szechuen, where it occurs 

 at elevations of 7,500-11,000 ft. At its lower altitudes it is 

 scattered in moist woods, more especially by the sides of streams, 

 with other conifers and broad-leaved trees, becoming more 

 abundant as it ascends and forming dense forests at the higher 

 alpine regions. It is known to the Chinese as " hung sha " 

 or " red fir," and is considered the most valuable coniferous 

 timber in W. China. 



Described in 1894, it was introduced ten years later by Mr. 

 E. H. WUson for Messrs. Veitch, 



Young trees are making good progress in Britain and although 

 it is too early to appraise this larch, it is more promising than 

 any of the L. dahurica group. The fohage of young trees at Kew 

 was seriously injured by frost in the spring of 1922. 



Kew Bull. 1910, p. 174, with fig. 



Larlx Principis Rupprechtii, Rehder and Wilson. 

 Prince Rtjpprecht's Larch. 



This is a larch from Corea, Manchuria, and the extreme 

 north-western corner of China, about which little is known in 

 Britain. Young trees which have not yet coned are growing 

 at Kew and show the following characters. 



Young shoots without down, bright reddish brown. Terminal 

 buds dark brown, glossy, with little or no resin, the points of the 

 scales free ; axillary huds, dark brown, glossy, pointed or blunt, 

 longer and less closely pressed to the branch than in other larches. 

 Leaves 2|-4 in. long, tV-iV in. wide on vigorous shoots, long- 

 pointed, the upper surface rounded, keeled beneath. 



Wilson ^ regards this tree as a large-coned form of L. dahurica 

 and states : 



" The typical form of L. Principis Rujyprechtii, Mayr., as 

 represented by the specimens from Wutai-shan, looks quite dis- 

 tinct from typical L. dahurica, but the specimens from Weichang, 

 together with others from Manchuria, Amurland, and Korea, 

 form a series which gradually merge unto typical L. dahurica. 

 With L. sibirica, Ledebour, with which it has been compared, it 

 agrees only in the size of its cones, but differs in their perfectly 

 glabrous, more spreading and thinner scales not incurved on the 

 margin, truncate or (particularly in the Weichang specimens) 

 even emarginate at the apex, and in the more conspicuous bracts 

 which are often, particularly in the lower part of the cone, more 

 than half as long as the scales ; in all these characters L. Principis 

 Rupprechtii agrees with L. dahurica, and it seems therefore best 

 to consider it as a variety of this species, distinguished by the 

 more numerous scales. Purdom and also Meyer speak of this 

 larch as forming forests on the northern slopes of Wutai-shan 

 ^ Plantce Wilsonianeoe, ii, 21. 



