LARCH 191 



clasping the margins by a rim ; needles not 

 in small tufts of 2 5. 



(a) Long shoots and dwarf shoots very dis- 

 tinct, the latter ivith tufts of 30 70 

 needles, the former with isolated scales 

 or needles. Cone scales thin. 



* Needles in tufts of 30 40, deciduous, 

 bright green ; $ cones purple -crimson 

 when young, then ovoid-ellipsoid, obtuse, 

 25 35 mm. long ; pale brown with few 

 and rather loosely imbricated entire striate 

 scales ; scales pointed, hardly exsei'ted. 

 Seeds 5 mm. long with oblique ^ ovate 

 wing 10 12 mm. long. $ cones 15 20 

 mm. long, pale yellow. 



Larix europcea, L. Larch (Fig. 51). Tail tree with 

 excessively thin deciduous foliage and slender branches, 

 nodose with the tubercle-like dwarf shoots. 



Male flowers about O'S 1 cm. long, ovoid-globoid to 

 shortly cylindroid according to age, pale green passing to 

 yellow ; axis sometimes curved up, base hollow. Stamens 

 almost peltate, carrying the pollen-sacs on the stalk and 

 ending in a compressed triangular, more or less, hood-like 

 green and entire limb. Pollen 75 87 fi, hemispherical, or 

 sub-globoid, pale yellow, rough, with three pores. 



Female flower about 1 1"5 cm. long, cylindroid, blunt, 

 the axis curved upwards at its base ; with broad, obovate, 

 thin purple-red scales, the emarginate apex with midrib 

 prolonged into a subulate out-curved process, green on the 

 lower scales, red on the upper. 



Cone about I'S 2 cm. long, ovoid, obtuse, ripening to 

 pale brown, on an evident stalk. Ovular scales rounded. 



