400 LARIX .OCCIDEXTAL1S. 



Larix Lyalli, Parlatore in Gard. Chron. 1863, p. 916. Hoopes, Evergreens, 256. 

 Regel in Garten fl. XX 103, t 685. Carriere, Traite Conif. ed. II. 361. Gordon, 

 Pinet. ed. II. 175. Sargent in Gard. Chron. XXV. (1886), p. 652, with fig. ; and 

 Silva N: Amer. loe. cit. supra. Beissner, Nadelholzk. 316, with tig. Macoun, Cat. 

 Caiiad. Plants. 476. Masters in Journ. R. Hort. Soc. XIA 7 . 218. 



Pinus Lyalli, Parlatore, D. C. Prodr. XVI. 412 (1868). 



Larix Lyalli is an alpine tree which grows only near the timber 

 line on mountain slopes from 4,500 to 8,000 feet elevation in southern 

 Alberta, British Columbia arid northern Washington, in places 

 associated with Pinus albicaulis, Abies lasiocarpa and Tsuya Mertensiana. 

 It was discovered on the Cascade mountains in 1860 by Dr. David 

 Lyall, surgeon and naturalist of the British Commission which 

 marked the boundary of the United States west of the Eocky 

 Mountains. It has not yet been introduced in Great Britain. 



Larix Lyalli comes so very close to the more widely-distributed 

 Larch of the plains and lowlands of the same region that it is not 

 improbable forms may come to light which will unite them. It is 

 distinguished from L. occidentalis " by its shorter quadrangular leaves, 

 its stouter spurs, by the dense white tomentum which covers the 

 young shoots and leaf buds, and by its larger sessile cones." The 

 wood is reddish brown, heavy, hard and close-grained. 



DAVID LYALL (1817 1895) was born at Auchinblae in Kincardineshire. He received 

 a medical education at Aberdeen University where he took his M.D. degree. Shortly 

 afterwards he undertook a voyage to Greenland as surgeon to a whaling ship, and on 

 his return he entered the Royal Navy and was soon afterwards appointed Assistant- 

 Surgeon to H.M. ship "Terror," one of the vessels fitted out for a scientific 

 expedition to the Antarctic regions under Sir James Ross. During his stay in the 

 antarctic regions he made a collection of Algfe which formed an important addition 

 to antarctic botany. After his return in 1842 he was appointed to the Mediterranean 

 service, and in 1847 he was selected as surgeon and naturalist to accompany H.M. 

 ship "Acheron" on the survey of the coast of New Zealand. Here, besides devoting 



himself to the collection of the lower orders of plants, he made many discoveries in 



the giganti 

 Ranunculus Lyalli. In 1852 he was appointed to H.M. ship "Assistance," one of 



the phanerogamic flora of the islands, including the gigantic white-flowered buttercup, 



the squadron sent to the Arctic regions under the command of Sir Edward Belcher in 

 search of Sir John Franklin ; during this expedition he collected the largest herbarium 

 ever formed in the American Polar islands. In 1858 he accompanied the Land 

 Boundary Commission on the survey of the boundary line between the United States 

 and British Columbia. From this expedition he brought home a magnificent 

 herbarium which was followed by a valuable contribution to the Journal of the 

 Linnean Society containing a botanical account of the region traversed from the sea 

 inland to 8,000 feet altitude of the Rocky Mountains, and in which the various zones 

 of vegetation in British Columbia were for the first time portrayed. He continued in 

 the service of the Government till 1873 when he retired and afterwards removed to 

 Cheltenham where he resided till his death. His name is botanically commemorated 

 by the genus Lyallia founded by Sir J. D. Hooker on a curious cariophyllaceous plant 

 discovered during the Antarctic expedition in Kerguelen's Land as well as by the 

 specific names of several plants of which he was the discoverer, including the Larch 

 described above. Journal of Botany, Vol. XXXIII. p. 209. 



Larix occidentalis. 



A lofty tree, attaining at its greatest development a height of 250 feet 

 with a trunk 6 8 feet in diameter, but more usually about 100 feet 

 high and 2 3 feet in diameter, the trunk covered with dark brown 

 bark which in old trees is very thick and fissured into irregular plates. 

 Lowermost branches horizontal, elongated and remote, dying off at an 



