24 Native Trees of Canada 



trees are sometimes difficult to distinguish. The bark of the lodgepole pine, how- 

 ever, is as a rule thinner, darker, and broken into finer scales than that of the jack 

 pine. The foliage, too, is darker than that of the jack pine, and the leaves have 

 the appearance of being more bunched towards the ends of the twigs in plume- 

 like clusters. The leaves of the jack pine are more scattered along the twigs and 

 slightly more twisted. The cones of the lodgepole pine are, as a rule, a little more 

 slender than those of the jack pine. They are also more roughened by knobs and 

 have a prickle at the tip of the scale, which is ordinarily absent in the mature jack 

 pine cone. The cones on both trees are curved; those of the jack pine slightly more 

 so than those of the lodgepole pine. 



This tree grows best on sandy, moist slopes, and plateaus, but is found grow- 

 ing on a great variety of soils from dry gravel to swamps. This is the "jack pine" 

 of the Rocky mountains and the Pacific coast. It is used for mine props, poles, 

 railway ties, and fencing, and is sawn into lumber for rough construction. Its 

 earliest use, from which its common name is derived, was for Indian teepee poles. 

 The wood is similar to that of eastern jack pine {Pinus Banksiana) . 



THE LARCHES 



Nine species of larch (Larix) are known, most of them confined to the north- 

 em parts of the Old and New Worlds. Three species occur in Canada two of 

 which are confined to the West. The only species found in the Bast also extends 

 into the West, and, along with the black and the white spruces, forms the northern 

 limit of tree growth in this country. A new species, the Alaska larch (Larix 

 alaskensis), has recently been discovered in the North. It has as yet been but very 

 little studied but it is possible that it may also be found in northern Canada. 



The larches as a whole are tall trees, with straight, gradually tapering stems. 

 The wood is of high technical value and used for the same purposes as that of the 

 hard pines. 



They can be readily distinguished from other cone-bearing trees on account 

 of their leaves being borne in brush-like clusters of from twelve to forty at the end 

 of short spur-like growths or knobs which stand out from the twigs. The leaves 

 of the pines are also borne in clusters, but are always done up in separate bundles 

 of from two to five. The leaves of the larches drop off each year leaving the tree 

 bare during the winter. No other native cone-bearing trees do this. 



LARIX LARICINA (Du Roi) Koch TAMARACK 



Common names: Tamarack, larch, hackmatack (Maritime Pro- 

 vinces), American larch, juniper* (Maritime Provinces), 

 black larch. 

 French names: Tamarac, meldze d'Amerique, epinette rouge*. 



The tamarack is a tree 60 to 70 ft. high and 1 to 2 ft. in diameter. The trunk 

 is straight and cylindrical. On young trees or those growing in dense stands the 

 crown is narrow, but as the tree becomes older the crown opens up and becomes 

 irregular. With slight crowding the trunk clears itself quickly of branches. 



