JAPANESE LARCH. 77 



13. Japanese Larch. 



By Prof. A. Henry. 



With regard to Sir Hugh Shaw-Stewart's inquiries in the last 

 issue of the Transactions, p. 270, concerning the Japanese larch 

 in its native habitat, attention may be drawn to an article by 

 Kume in the Transactions, vol. xx. p. 28 (1907), which gave a 

 yield-table compiled from some statistics of plantations of this 

 species in Japan. It may be worth while also to quote some 

 brief accounts of this tree by other observers. 



Mayr states ^ that Larix kptolejns is found growing wild only 

 on the volcanoes of the central part of Hondo, namely on Fuji, 

 Ontake, Asama, Shiranesan, Norikura, etc. All these volcanic 

 cones are made up of blocks of lava and sand, which have 

 weathered into an extremely fertile soil, containing much lime 

 in its composition. The upper forest zone on these mountains 

 is constituted by the larch with birches, Abies Veitchii, Tsuga 

 diversi/fllia, and Ficea hondoensis. The foliage appears on the 

 larch in the beginning of June, and falls off as early as the 

 middle of August. Larix leptolepis is confined to this part of 

 Japan, and does not occur wild, as has been erroneously reported, 

 in either Yezo or Saghalien. The Japanese have, however, 

 planted Larix leptolepis in places with a warmer climate, as in 

 the zone of the chestnut, Aucuba, and evergreen Euonymus, on 

 the Amagi mountains, where Mayr saw among broad-leaf 

 trees a plantation about 75 years old, which was about to be 

 felled as the stems had ceased to make any increment in volume. 

 These trees showed all the defects of larch plantations in warm 

 climates, being very branchy, the wood showing broad rings, 

 wide sap and pale-coloured heartwood. They were on an 

 average only 95 feet in height, and 20 inches in diameter at 

 breast-height. This plantation, like those made in Europe, 

 showed great development of wide-spreading horizontal branches, 

 so that it is evident that only close planting, or mixture with 

 shade-bearing trees, will enable the Japanese larch to clean its 

 stem. 



Shirasawa informed me that this species attained 120 feet in 

 height and 2 to 3 feet in diameter in deep volcanic soil on these 

 mountains, where deciduous broad-leaf trees could not be grown 

 ' Fremdldnd. IVald-und-Parkbiiiime, p. 306 (1906). 



