384 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



the experimental forestry station near Munich, where the thermometer goes down 

 to 15 Fahr. below zero, and seedlings only four years old are already 5^ feet high. 

 They resembled Larix americana more than L. leptolepis in the blackish colour 

 of their young shoots. Dr. Mayr says that it is the first larch to become green 

 in Europe, though in my nursery seedlings of the Altai and north Russian larches 

 are both earlier. He says that its dark shoots have gained it the name of black 

 larch from visitors to his nursery, and that in the park of The Duke of Inn- and 

 Knyphausen at Liitetsburg in east Friesland it grows faster than any other species of 

 larch, being 6 metres high at the age of seven years.^ 



So far as our very short experience of this tree in England enables us to judge, 

 it is likely to thrive well, at any rate in its youth. Several young trees which are in 

 my nursery grow fast, and ripen their growths earlier than common larch. Some 

 seed received from Japan in June 1906 germinated very quickly, and made healthy 

 little plants the same season. It should be tried especially in the wetter parts of 

 Great Britain. (H. J. E.) 



LARIX LEPTOLEPIS 



Larix leptolepis, Endlicher,^ ^. Conif. 130(1847); GorAon, Finetum, 128(1858); Mzyr, Abie t. 

 Jap. Reiches, 63, t. 5, f. 14 (1890), and Fremdldnd. Wald- u. Parkbdume, 302 (1906); Kent, 

 VeiicKs Man. Conif erce, 397 (1900). 

 Larix japonica, Carrifere, Conif. 272 (1855). 

 Larix Kaempferi, Sargent, Silva N. Amer. xii. 2, adnot. 2 (1898). 

 Pinm Larix, Thunberg, Fl. Jap. 275 (1784) (not Linnseus). 

 Finns Kaempferi, Lambert, Finus, ii. preface, p. v (1824). 

 Abies Kaempferi, Lindley, Fenny Cycl. i. 34 (1833). 

 Abies leptolepis, Siebold et Zuccarini, FL Jap. ii. 12, t. 105 (1842). 

 Finus leptolepis, Endlicher, Syn. Conif 130 (1847). 



A tree attaining in Japan a height of 100 feet and a girth of 12 feet. Bark of 

 native trees, according to Mayr, similar to that of the European larch, the freshly ex- 

 foliating scales being more brownish than red ; but in cultivated trees in England the 

 bark begins to scale very early, peeling off usually in large long strips and giving a 

 red appearance to the trunk. Young branchlets glaucous, usually covered with a 

 dense, erect, brown pubescence, but occasionally almost glabrous, only a few brown 

 hairs being present. Branchlets of the second year reddish with a glaucous tinge, 

 retaining some pubescence or quite glabrous. Base of the shoots girt by a sheath of 

 the previous season's bud-scales, the uppermost of which are loose and reflected, 

 with no ring of pubescence visible. Short shoots stouter than in the common larch, 



' In Mitl. Deutsche Dendr. Ges. 1906, p. 27, the age of this tree is stated erroneously as twenty-five to thirty years. Its 

 height in 1906 is given as 9 metres. 



' Pinus leptolepis was the name preferred by Endlicher; but he quotes Larix leptolepis, Hort., as a synonym ; and as 

 this is the first publication of Larix leptolepis, Endlicher is responsible for the name, and it is credited to him ; and being the 

 first published name under the correct genus is adopted by us. Moreover, it is the name by which this species is universally 

 known ; and the adoption of Sargent's name, Larix Kaempferi, would cause great confusion, as this has been used for Pseudo- 

 larix Kaempferi, the golden larch of China. The Japanese larch, though known to Kaempfer and Thunberg in the eighteenth 

 century and mentioned by Lambert, was first described by Lindley in 1833. 



