8 CHINESE ECONOMIC TREES 



rp 



Larix dahurica I urczanmOW. 



Tree to 'JO m. tall. Branchlets tomentose. Buds yellow-brown and 

 blackish at the base. Leaves about 4 cm. long. Cones usually 2-4 cm. 

 long, Bometimes longer; scales 20 or more, rounded or notched or 

 truncated at ilie apex, shiny brown. 



E. Siberia to N. China. 



PSEUDOLARIX 



Deciduous coniferous trees with linear or needle-like leaves spirally 

 arranged on terminal shoots, whorled or tufted on short lateral spurs. 

 Staminate flowers yellow, on the end of a spur. Cones large, with thick, 

 woody, triangular scales, deciduous from the central axis. Ripening in 

 1 season. 



One species in China. 



Pseudolarix resembles the true larches but the leaves are larger and 

 broader. They are yellow-green in the spring, turning golden yellow 

 before falling in the autumn. The staminate flowers of Pseudolarix are 

 clustered, the cone is large with thick triangular scales, deciduous from 

 the central axis, while in Larix, the staminate flowers are solitary and 

 the cone has persistent scales. The Golden Larch is frequently dwarfed 

 in pots. In nature it attains to a large size, and fine specimens still 

 survive; in the grounds of 2 temples west of Ningpo in Chekiang. 



There are good reasons to believe that Pseudolarix was once very 

 common within its range, but it has been gradually cut off until very 

 few of the trees are seen in a wild state to-day. The Government Forest 

 Service is planting a large area to the Golden Larch in an effort to save 

 it from extinction. 



Pseudolarix Gordon. 



(Ging Tsung.) Golden Lnrch. 



'lice up to 40 m. tall, with scaly red-brown bark. Leaves 3.5-4 cm. 

 long, sharp pointed, slightly curved above. Staminate flowers, 20-30 

 in a cluster; anthers 20, 2 celled, opening transversely to discharge the 

 pollen grains, which, unlike the simple pollen grains of Larix, are winged 

 (as in Pinvs), Cones 2-5 cm. long, about as broad, ovoid, erect. The 

 Bcalea are numerous, woody, reddish-brown when ripe, acute or notched 

 at the apex, adnate to an ovate-lanceolate bract. Seeds with long 

 articulate wing. 



