260 PRACTICAL FORESTRY. 



only thirty to forty feet high, and remarkable on account of 

 the cobweb-like wool that clothes the leaf-buds and young 

 shoots. Its cones arc larger and more oblong than those of our 

 other native Larches. It is found at elevations of six to seven 

 thousand feet. 



L. occidentaiis, Nutt. — Western Larch. — Leaves a little less 

 than an inch long, thick, and quite rigid, terminated with a 

 sharp point, doubled channeled above and below, somewhat 

 four-angled, but flat. Cones ovoid, an inch and a quarter long, 

 reflexed, scales short, ovoid, edges thin. Bracts a half inch 

 long, fringed, and terminating in a long awn. A large tree, 

 sixty to eighty feet liigh in Oregon and Washington Territory, 

 where it grows up to an elevation of some five thousand feet. 

 This species will probably thrive in our Atlantic States. 



FOREIGX SPECIES AND VARIETIES. 



The common European Larch (L. Europea), has long been a 

 favorite forest tree in Europe, not only on account of its valua- 

 ble timber, but because of its rapid growth under cultivation. 

 It is found abundantly through Central Europe at high eleva- 

 tions, where it grows to a large size, sometimes a hundred feet 

 high. During the past two centuries extensive Larch planta- 

 tions have been established in Great Britain, especially in Scot- 

 land, where this tree appears to thrive as well as in its native 

 mountains. Its timber is extensively used for naval jDurposes 

 on account of its lightness, toughness, and durability. It is 

 also employed for hoiJ-poles, mill-work, beams, joists in build- 

 ings, docks, and various other purposes. The cultivation of 

 the European Larch in this country has often been attempted 

 on quite a large scale, and at one time it was thought that it 

 would prove a valuable tree for planting on the high and dry 

 prairies of the west, but the climate of those regions does not 

 appear to be as congenial as that of Great Britain, and, upon the 

 whole, the Larch plantations in the west have not been as gi-eat 

 a success and was expected, although the tree thrives in almost 

 any good and moderately moist soil in our Northern States, but 

 is scarcely adapted to planting on the higher and drier plains 

 and prairies. There are several handsome ornamental varieties 

 in cultivation, and they may be found described in nursery- 

 men's catalogues under such names as the Weeping Larch, 

 Smooth-leaved, Compact or Pyramidal, etc. 



L. Dahoi-ica, Turz. — Dahurian Larch. — A small tree from 



