PINACEAE. LARIX 29 



Mayr are the most distinct. The last two were discovered by Siebold and by 

 Siebold & Zuccarini were referred to their P. Massoniana as varieties. 



Like the Red Pine (P. densiflora S. & Z.) the Black Pine was discovered by 

 Thunberg *ad introduced into Holland by von Siebold in 1855 and into England 

 by John Gould Veitch in 1861. The largest plants growing in this Arboretum 

 are from seeds received from the Agricultural College, Sapporo, Hokkaido, in 

 June 1880; there are other good specimens raised from seeds collected in Japan in 

 1892 by Professor Sargent. In eastern North America this species is hardy and 

 grows rapidly as far north at least as Boston, Massachusetts. It would appear 

 to be of value for planting on the seashore and on sand dunes and in such ex- 

 posed situations deserves a thorough trial. 



LARIX Mill. 



Ten species of this genus, with possibly two well-marked geographical varie- 

 ties, are now recognized and two Larches of hybrid origin are also in cultivation. 

 All the species are confined to the Northern Hemisphere, where they are widely 

 distributed from the Arctic Circle southward and reach their southern limits on 

 the mountains of Yunnan province, China, and on the Himalayas. Three species 

 are North American and of these L. laricina K. Koch is dispersed over an immense 

 region from Newfoundland and Labrador westward to the valley of the Mackenzie 

 River and beyond to the Yukon, Alaska. 1 The other two species (L. Lyallii Pari, 

 and L. ocddentalis Nutt.) are confined to western North America and have a rather 

 restricted geographical range. The European Larch (L. decidua Mill.) is wild on 

 the Alps from Dauphine to the Tyrol, on the Carpathians and on the mountains 

 of Bohemia and Moravia. In some places it forms extensive and pure forests. 

 Its Siberian relative (L. sibirica Ledeb.) covers large areas in northern Russia 

 as far north as latitude 67 and spreads eastward through Siberia to the Yenesei 

 River and possibly beyond; from the Altai Mountains to Lake Baikal it finds the 

 southern limits of its range. 



On the Himalayas there is one species (L. Griffithii Hook. f. & Thorns.) and 

 this is distributed eastward from eastern Nepal to the mountains bordering 

 Yunnan in southwestern China. In China two species (L. Potaninii Batal. and L. 

 Mastersiana Rehd. & Wils.) are endemic and grow on the mountains from Shensi 

 province westward to those of the Chino-Thibetan borderland. Larix Mastersiana, 

 however, may prove when better known only a condition of L. Potaninii with ab- 

 normal bracts. In northeast Asia from near Lake Baikal east and north grows L. 

 dahurica Turcz., but the geographical limits and range of variation of this species 

 are not yet properly known. In Saghalien, Kamtchatka and the Kuriles, and possi- 

 bly also in the coastal region of the Amur province, it is represented by the variety 

 japonica Maxim.; in parts of Korea, Mandshuria and in extreme northeastern 

 China it is represented by the large-coned variety Principis Rupprechtii Rehd. & 

 Wils. From Olga Bay, northeast of Vladivostock, Henry has recently (in Gard. 

 Chron. ser. 3, LVII. 109, fig. 31, 32 [1915]) described a new species (L. olgensis), 

 but it is doubtful if this is anything more than a state of the variety japonica, itself 

 very questionably distinct from typical L. dahurica. In Japan one species is 

 endemic in the central parts of the main island of Hondo. 



1 From Alaska a new species (L. alaskensis Wight in Smithsonian Misc. Coll. L. 174, t. 17 [1908]) 

 has recently been described and Henry (in Gard. Chron. ser. 3, LVIII. 178 [1915]) states that it may be 

 L. dahurica Turcz. I have seen the type specimen of this supposed new species and can find no 

 character by which it can be distinguished from typical L. laricina K. Koch. 



