LARCH 191 



clasping the margins by a rim ; needles not 

 in small tufts of 2 5. 



(a) Long shoots and dwarf shoots very dis- 

 tinct, the latter with tufts of 30 70 

 needles, the former with isolated scales 

 or needles. Cone scales thin. 



* Needles in tufts of 30 40, deciduous, 

 bright green ; cones purple -crimson 

 when young, then ovoid-ellipsoid, obtuse, 

 25 35 mm. long ; pale brown with few 

 and rather loosely imbricated entire striate 

 scales ; scales pointed, hardly exserted. 

 Seeds 5 mm. long with oblique J ovate 

 wing 10 12 mm. long. (J cones 15 20 

 mm. long, pale yellow. 



Larix europcea, L. Larch (Fig. 51). Tall tree with 

 excessively thin deciduous foliage and slender branches, 

 nodose with the tubercle-like dwarf shoots. 



Male flowers about 0*5 1 cm. long, ovoid-globoid to 

 shortly cylindroid according to age, pale green passing to 

 yellow ; axis sometimes curved up, base hollow. Stamens 

 almost peltate, carrying the pollen-sacs on the stalk and 

 ending in a compressed triangular, more or less, hood-like 

 green and entire limb. Pollen 75 87 /-&, hemispherical, or 

 sub-globoid, pale yellow, rough, with three pores. 



Female flower about 1 1*5 cm. long, cylindroid, blunt, 

 the axis curved upwards at its base ; with broad, obovate, 

 thin purple-red scales, the emarginate apex with midrib 

 prolonged into a subulate out-curved process, green on the 

 lower scales, red on the upper. 



Cone about 1*5 2 cm. long, ovoid, obtuse, ripening to 

 pale brown, on an evident stalk. Qvular scales rounded, 



