PINACEAE. LARIX DAHURICA 31 



growing in this Arboretum. Seeds were collected by Philip Codman in 1892 at 

 the upper limit of this scrubby Larch, and the trees raised from them are now 

 12 m. tall and have grown just as rapidly as trees raised from seeds collected 

 from the ordinary tree form. 



This Japanese Larch is inclined to form pure stands and these are often of very 

 considerable extent, but it grows also in mixed woods with Pinus densiflora S. & Z., 

 Picea jezoensis Carr., Tsuga diversifolia Mast, and such broad-leaved trees as Oak, 

 Birch, Hornbeam and Beech, and with Abies homolepis S. & Z. at its lowest and A. 

 Veitchii Lindl. at its upper altitudinal limit. The maximum size of Larix Kaemp- 

 feri is about 33 m. by 4 m., but such trees are rare and the average size is from 25 

 to 26 m. tall and from 2 to 3 m. in girth of trunk. The bark is gray and scales off 

 in narrow strips, leaving behind red scars; on old trees near the base of the trunk 

 the bark is deeply furrowed into more or less oblong plates. The branches are 

 numerous, slender and short, horizontally spreading, sometimes slightly ascending, 

 sometimes slightly decurved, and form a narrow, somewhat pyramidal crown. The 

 shoot is glabrous or pubescent, yellowish to reddish brown and often more or less 

 pruinose. The leaves are glaucous green, strongly keeled on the lower side and 

 stomatiferous on both surfaces. The cone is broadly ovoid, from 1.6 to 3 cm. 

 long, and the upper margin of the lepidote cone-scale is reflexed. The wood is 

 very durable in and near the ground and on this account is valued for mine-props, 

 rail way- ties, telegraph-poles and the like; it is also used in ship-building. In 

 Japan this tree is esteemed as the source of very useful timber and on this account 

 it has been extensively planted in many parts of Hondo, and in Hokkaido as far 

 north as Sapporo, where it thrives. In eastern North America Larix Kaempferi 

 is perfectly hardy as far north as Boston, and in this Arboretum its rate of growth 

 is more rapid than that of the European Larch (L. decidua Mill.). The common 

 Japanese name for this Larch is Kara-matsu, and it is also known as Fuji-matsu 

 and Rakuyosho. 



This Larch was first mentioned by Kaempfer (Amoen. fasc. V. 883 [1712]) 

 under its vernacular name of Kara-maatz and as Larix conifera, nucleis pyramida- 

 tis, foliis deciduis. Thunberg took it to be the same as the European species and 

 cites Linnaeus' description, but Lambert, suspecting the Japanese species was dis- 

 tinct, named it for Kaempfer. It was first introduced into Europe by John Gould 

 Veitch, who sent seeds to England in 1861, and one of the trees raised from these 

 seeds was planted in the Hunnewell Pinetum. 



LARIX DAHURICA Turcz. 



Larix dahurica Turczaninow apud Trautvetter, Imag. PI. Fl. Russ. 48, t. 32 

 (1844). Carriere, Traite Conif. 271 (1855). Trautvetter & Meyer in Midden- 

 dorff, Beit. Sibir. I. pt. 2, Bot. abt. 2, 88 (Fl. Ochot.) (1856). Ruprecht & Maxi- 

 mowicz in Bull. Phys.-Math. Acad. Sci. St. Petersbourg, XV. 140 (1857). Ruprecht 

 & Maack in Bull. Phys.-Math. Acad. Sci. St. Petersbourg, XV. 382 (1857). Regel 

 & Tiling, Fl. Ajan. 119 (1858). Maximowicz in Mem. Sav. Etr. Acad. Sci. St. 

 Petersbourg, IX. 262 (Prim. Fl. Amur.) (1859). Fr. Schmidt in Mem. Acad. Sci. 

 St. Petersbourg, ser. 7, XII. no. 2, 177 (Reis. Amur. Sachal.) (1868). Glehn in 

 Act. Hort. Petrop. IV. 86 (1874). Herder in Act. Hort. Petrop. XII. 98 (1892). 

 Korshinsky in Act. Hort. Petrop. XII. 424 (1892). Komarov in Act. Hort. Petrop. 

 XX. 190 (Fl. Mandsh. I.) (1901). Beissner, Handb. Nadelh. ed. 2, 319, fig. 77 



