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LARIX 



Larix, Adanson, Fam. PI. ii. 480 (1763); Bentham et Hooker, Gen. PL iii. 442 (1880); Masters, 



Journ. Linn. Soc. {Pot.) xxx. 31 (1893). 

 Pinus, Linnaeus, Gen. PL 293 (in part) (1737). 

 Abies, A. L. de Jussieu, Gen. 414 (in part) (1789). 



Trees belonging to the order Coniferae, with thick scaly bark, irregular and not 

 whorled branches, and deciduous foliage. Branchlets of two kinds, long shoots 

 bearing solitary leaves spirally arranged, and short shoots bearing numerous leaves 

 in tufts at their extremities, these leaves being of unequal lengths and arising each 

 in the axil of a bud-scale. Leaves linear, either flattened or keeled above, always 

 strongly keeled beneath, with a single fibro -vascular bundle and two resin-canals 

 close to the epidermis of the outer angles. Buds of three kinds: (i) terminal on 

 the long branchlets and developing either into long or short shoots ; (2) axillary on 

 the long branchlets, scattered, solitary in the axils of the leaves, and developing 

 occasionally into long shoots, or more commonly producing short shoots with apical 

 tufts of leaves ; and (3) apical buds on the short shoots, which usually on developing 

 slightly prolong the short shoot and produce again a tuft of leaves, this process being 

 repeated for several years ; or occasionally suddenly elongate into long shoots with 

 solitary leaves, or produce flowers. In this way a complicated and irregular 

 system of branching results, very different from that produced by the regular whorled 

 buds of pines, silver firs, and spruces. 



Flowers monoecious, fertilised by the wind, arising solitary on the apices of 

 short shoots of two to six years old. Male flowers always much more numerous 

 than the females, directed downwards ; globose, ovoid or oblong ; sessile or stalked, 

 surrounded at the base by scales, and composed of numerous stamens with short 

 stalks spirally arranged on a central axis ; anthers two-celled, dehiscing longitudinally ; 

 connective rounded. Female flowers always erect, subglobose, girt at the base by 

 a bundle of leaves, and consisting of a series of orbicular, stalked, ovular scales, each 

 in the axil of a much longer mucronate, oblong bract. The scales, each bearing 

 two ovules, increase in size, as the flower develops into the fruit, while the bracts do 

 not increase. 



Fruit a cone, short-stalked and always erect, composed of concave imbricated 

 woody scales, which are persistent and are either longer or shorter than the bracts ; 

 cones ripening at the end of the first season, the scales opening and letting out the 

 seeds, which are distributed by the wind in autumn or in the following spring, the 



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