Larix 377 



was described as follows: "The bark quite cinereous, not of a yellowish-brown 

 colour, and not distinctly scarred as in the common larch, but, on the contrary, the 

 vestiges of the scars are scarcely visible ; the leaves come out so soon that they 

 are liable to be injured by spring frosts, and what is remarkable, the female flowers 

 are not produced till some time after those of the European larch appear ; they are 

 like those of Pinus {Larix) microcarpa. Mr. Sabine has a plant of this sort in his 

 garden at North Mimms, which he received under the name of Larix sibirica from 

 Messrs. Loddiges, who obtained the seed originally from Professor Pallas, whose 

 Pinus Larix it probably is. He contrasts the cinereous bark of his plant with the 

 pale brown colour of the common larch ; it may probably prove to be a distinct 

 species." So far as I can learn no trees of this introduction are now living at 

 Dunkeld. 



Large quantities of seed were procured by Messrs. Little and Ballantyne of 

 Carlisle, and raised in their nurseries about eight years ago, but the trees from them 

 have generally been a complete failure owing to the very early bursting of their 

 leaf-buds. 



I received in 1902, from the Tula Government, through Professor Fischer de 

 Waldheim, some seed of the Siberian larch, and a few of the seedlings look rather 

 more promising than those from North Russia ; but we are not aware that any fair- 

 sized tree of this species now exists in England. 



In December 1902 I received seed of this tree from Herr E. Rodd, which was 

 gathered in the Ouimon valley in the Altai mountains early in September, but he 

 tells me that it is not naturally shed there until spring. This seed germinated, but 

 the plants raised from it are small and unhealthy, and vegetate very early in the 

 spring, so that they seem likely to grow as badly in this climate as the larch from 

 the Ural. 



In England, as a forest tree this species seems likely to be worthless, for it 

 opens its leaves so early, and suffers so much from spring frost, that with few 

 exceptions the young trees I have grown are unhealthy, and many have already died, 

 though planted in a very cold and exposed situation. 



In the north of Norway I saw it growing at the Government nurseries in 

 Saltdalen in 1903 from Russian seed sown in 1882. Trees only 15 feet high were 

 already bearing cones, but were much healthier and more vigorous than the common 

 larch ; and in the Botanic Garden at Christiania I noticed that though growing at the 

 rate of a foot annually, the leaves were attacked by a Chermes like C. laricis. 



Timber 



The tree is common in the north of Russia, where it forms a large part of the forests 

 on the east side of the White Sea ; and in the valley of the Petchora, seems to attain 

 very large dimensions. Seebohm^ says that Alexievka at the mouth of this river is 

 the shipping port of the Petchora Timber Company, where ships are loaded with 

 larch for Cronstadt. " The larch is felled in the forests 500 or 600 miles up the 



' Siberia in Europe, ly^ (1886). 



II 2 A 



