380 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



Saghalien. According to Herder^ it occurs in the northern Ural range at lat. 68, 

 and at Nijni Kolymsk in north-eastern Siberia at the same latitude ; but it is probable 

 that in the former locality he may be referring to Larix sibirica, and in the latter 

 case to the form now distinguished by Mayr as Larix Cajanderi. It is uncertain 

 whether the larch which occurs in Kamtchatka is L. dahurica or a distinct species.'' 



Larix dahurica is very plentiful on the Stanovoi mountains, and along the 

 southern half of the coast of the sea of Ochotsk. Middendorff found it on the Aldan 

 mountains up to 4Ckx) feet elevation. According to Komarov' it forms woods in 

 moist situations in the mountain valleys throughout the Amur, Ussuri, S. Ussuri, 

 and Kirin provinces of Manchuria and in northern Corea. Korshinksy^ states that 

 it is frequent in the whole Amur region, forming forests in the mountains of the 

 upper Amur and Bureja, but that it does not occur in the plain between the Zeja 

 and Bureja. 



It occurs in Saghalien, in the northern half of which it grows mixed with 

 common birch and attains a great size, a fallen tree in the forest having been 

 measured by Hawes^ as 145 feet in length. Elsewhere it forms part of the 

 coniferous forest of the island, being mixed with Abies sachalinensis, Picea ajanensis, 

 and Picea Glehnii. It also occurs on the island of Shintar. 



Elwes saw at Wellesley, Mass., a young larch raised in the Arnold Arboretum 

 from seed received at Petersburg as L. dahurica, which had a peculiar growth of the 

 branches, which, according to Prof. Sargent, is seen in all the trees of the same 

 origin. At the commencement of each season's growth the new wood made a 

 distinct angle, turning upwards a little, so that in four years' growth it became 

 erect. Prof. Sargent states that he saw many larches in eastern Siberia which he 

 considered to be L. dahurica, and that they all had the same habit. The young 

 trees at Boston have not yet borne cones, but the main stems were making annual 

 growths about 2 feet long, and the tree seemed more at home in that climate than 

 in England. 



History 



Pinus pendula was first described by Alton in 1789; and Solander's'^ MS., on 

 which the description was founded, states that the tree is a native of Newfoundland, 

 with leaves longer and cones shorter than the European larch. A sheet of specimens 

 preserved in the British Museum bears in Salisbury's handwriting '' Pinus pendula" ; 

 three specimens are unmistakable L. dahurica ; the fourth, a small branch, is L. 

 americana. 



Lambert's figure oi P. pendula, published in 1803, is certainly L. dahurica, the 

 drawing being made from specimens obtained from a tree in Collinson's garden at 

 Mill Hill which was planted in 1739, the supposed first introduction of the species. 

 Lambert also figures and describes, as a distinct species, P. microcarpa, identical 



* Act. Hart. Petrop. xii. 98 (1892). ' Larix kamtschatica, Carr. ' Flora Manshuria, i. 190 (1901). 



* Act. Horl. Petrop. xii. 424 (1892). ' Uttermost East, 105 (1903). 



* According to Loudon, op, cit. 2401, Solander's description was taken from tlie tree at Mill Hill, which, according to 

 Lambert's figure, must have been / dahurica. 



