Larix 375 



cones, which have fewer and differently shaped scales and short concealed bracts. 

 In the Siberian larch the scales are convex both laterally and longitudinally, whereas 

 in the European larch they are flattened longitudinally. The seeds, moreover, of 

 the former have longer and differently shaped wings, and do not cover the scales of 

 the cone up to their margin as is the case in the latter. 



Varieties 



In wild specimens both pubescent and glabrous branchlets occur. Cones from 

 a tree, cultivated in the Botanic Garden at St. Petersburg, differ in being narrowly 

 cylindrical, with oblong scales only half the width of wild specimens ; and the bracts 

 are also much narrower. The seeds, however, lie on the scales as in wild specimens ; 

 and the scales have the convex form and inflected upper margin of typical L. sibirica. 



A supposed variety, rossica, occurring in northern Russia, was distinguished by 

 Regel as having small cones ; but as Beissner informs me in a letter, it was subse- 

 quently abandoned by Regel, and is now not noticed by Willkomm or by any 

 Russian botanist. Sir C. Wolseley, Bart., vice-consul at Archangel, has kindly sent 

 me excellent fruiting specimens from Archangel, which differ in no respect from the 

 Ural larch. 



Distribution 



The Siberian larch has an extremely wide distribution, occurring in north- 

 eastern Russia and throughout a great part of Siberia. 



In European Russia it occurs wild in the governments of Archangel, Vologda, 

 Viatka, Perm, and Orenburg. According to Korshinsky,^ it grows rather sparingly 

 in the plains of northern Russia, as isolated trees in the pine forests ; whereas on the 

 mountains of the Ural chain and its branches it forms extremely large forests, some- 

 times pure, and sometimes mixed with pine and spruce. Its exact distribution is 

 differently stated by various Russian authorities. Herder" adds to the preceding 

 provinces Ufa, Olonetz, eastern Finland, and the northern parts of Kostroma and of 

 Nijni-Novgorod. Ruprecht ' states that it commences to grow in the northern part 

 of the government of Olonetz beyond the city of Kargopol, from whence extensive 

 woods of it stretch to the Ness river in the Kanin peninsula. In this peninsula it 

 attains its most northerly point in Europe, on the Arctic circle. Further east its 

 distribution sinks to the southward, and its most northerly point on the Ural range is 

 about 58 latitude. 



Its distribution in Siberia is not yet clearly known, as it has been confused with 

 Larix dahurica. It would appear to be the species common in middle and southern 

 Siberia west of Lake Baikal, while Larix dahurica apparently occupies eastern 

 Siberia and Manchuria, a close ally of it, Larix Cajanderi, occurring in the extreme 

 north in the lower part of the valley of the Lena, north of lat. 63. Larix sibirica is 

 reported from Olga Bay in Manchuria, but this requires confirmation ; and it has 



' Tent. Fl. Rossia Orientalis, 493 (1898). ' Act. Hort. Petrop. xii. loi (1892). ' Loc. cit. 



