402 LARIX SIBIRICA. 



Larix occidentalis, the largest of all Larches and one of the most 

 useful timber trees of North America, was seen for the first time by 

 Lewis and Clark during their adventurous journey across the American 

 continent in 1805 1806 ; it was next detected by David Douglas in 

 1827, who mistook it for the European species, and seven years later by 

 Thomas Nuttall who first -specifically distinguished it, but a long series 

 of years elapsed before it was brought into cultivation. Growing in 

 the midst of some of the most gigantic coniferous trees in the 

 world, it is not surprising that Larix occidentalis should simulate 

 their lofty stature ; nevertheless the tree grows slowly, which the 

 author of the " Silva of North America " ascribes to " the smallness 

 of the leaf surface in comparison with the height and thickness 

 of stem, and there is certainly no other instance among the 

 trees of the northern hemisphere where such massive trunks support 

 such 'small, short branches and sparse foliage.* The wood surpasses 

 that of all other American Conifers in hardness and strength ; it 

 is durable, beautifully coloured, free of knots, and is adapted to all 

 sorts of construction, and for household furniture ; it is, however, 

 but little used in the sparsely settled and remote region in which 

 it abounds. The thickness of the bark of this Larch enables it 

 to resist the heat of the forest fires, which are fast destroying 

 the noble coniferous trees in the Columbia basin ; " and in the 

 struggle for supremacy between the different inhabitants of the 

 Columbian forests under the changed conditions which have 

 followed the white man's occupation of the country Larix 

 occidentalis seems destined to hold its own, and probably even to 

 extend its sway." f 



The Western Larch was introduced through the . Arnold 

 Arboretum in 1881, but it is still extremely rare in Great 

 Britain, and 110 definite conclusion can yet be arrived at respecting 

 its suitableness for the British climate and its use for British 

 arboriculture. 



Larix sibirica. 



A slender tree with an elongated spiry crown of which the lower 

 branches are more or less pendulous. Leaves 1 1*5 inch long, in 

 much crowded fascicles. Staminate flowers hemispheric, compressed; 

 anthers shorter than in Larix europcca, with a short oblique, obtuse 

 connective. Ovuliferous flowers 0'5 inch long, and nearly as broad,, 

 composed of pale green downy scales and surrounded at the base by 

 numerous obovate involucral bracts, strongly keeled on the back and 

 terminating in a short mucro, and which arch over and almost enclose 

 the flower. Cones ovoid-cylindric, about 1*5 inch long ; scales in 

 five six series, ovate-orbicular, striated on the dorsal face ; seed-wings- 

 scarcely broader than the seed. 



Larix sibirica, Ledebour, Fl. Alt. IV. 204 (1833). Willkomm, Forstl. Fl ed. IL 

 153. Link in Linns?a, XV. 535. 



L. Ledebouri, Gordon, Pinet. ed. II. 173. 



L. europaea var. sibirica, London, Arb. et Frut. Brit. IV. 2352. Beissner, 

 Nadelholzk. 324, with fig. 



Pinus Ledebouri, Eudlicher, Synops. Conif. 131 (1847). Parlatore, D, C. Prodr. 

 XVI. 410. 



* Vol. XII. p. 11. t Idem. p. 13. 



