1 78 LARIX. 



The wood of the Black Larch is very important to the ship- 

 builder in the United States, and is in every way superior to 

 that of the Common Larch. In the British Provinces it is a 

 flourishing tree, not unfrequently found growing on hard and 

 dry soil, and the timber of superior quality. In the United 

 States it is confined in its growth principally to the swampy 

 parts of the Pine districts of the Northern States. The timber 

 is not large, but well adapted for the top and deck framing of 

 vessels ; and for lightness, strength, and durability combined, 

 the Hackmatack timber is unequalled in its class. 



Gen. LEPIDOTHAMNUS. Philippi. 



Flowers, dioecious or monoecious. Male catkins small, egg- 

 shaped, and terminal. 



Fruit, solitary and terminal, with few scales, the lower of 

 which are the largest and sterile, and the upper ones the 

 smallest and fertile. 



Seeds, solitary, pitcher- shaped, naked at the top, and girded 

 at the base by a cup. 



Leaves, minute, scale-formed, convex or keeled on the back, 

 thickened at the points, and regularly imbricated. 



Name, derived from " Lepis," a scale, and " Thamnos," a 

 shrub, the twigs of the plant being covered with minute, scale- 

 like leaves. 



A ramose shrub, with the branchlets crowded close together, 

 found in the Province of Valdivia, and on the Cordillera 

 Pelada, in Chili. 



Lepidothamnus Fonki, Philippi, Fonk's Lepidothamnus, 

 Leaves minute, scale-formed, convexly keeled on the back^ 

 thickened at the points, and regularly imbricated. Male cat- 

 kins small, egg-shaped, and terminal; female ones solitary 

 and terminal. Fruit with few scales, the lower of which are 



