52 



The Larches 



of leaf-surface. The branchlets are relatively short. The bark is very thick on 

 old trees, often 12 to 15 cm., fissured into large irregular elongated scaly plates 

 of a dark red-brown color; on young trees it is relatively thinner and scaly. The 

 twigs are stout, with soft pale hairs, orange to brown, becoming smooth and 

 darker brown. The winter buds are globose, 3 to 4 mm. thick, and covered with 

 hairy brown scales. The slender leaves are 3 to 4 cm. long, about 0.5 mm. thick, 

 triangular, convex on the back, keeled below, and stiffly sharp-pointed, rather 

 pale green, turning yellow before falHng in the autumn. The staminate flowers 

 are oblong, short-stalked, and pale yellow. The pistillate flowers are oblong, sessile 

 or nearly so, less than i cm. long. The short-stalked cones are 3 to 4 cm. long, 

 about 2 cm. thick, oblong-ovoid, reddish brown, composed of thin, loose, widely 

 spreading scales placed nearly at right angles to the axis when mature; they are 

 entire or slightly irregularly toothed on the sometimes slightly reflexed margins, 

 hairy on the lower haK of the under side, almost orbicular, 2 cm. in diameter, 



Fig. 40. Western Larch. 



and half the length of the bracts; these are oblong, abruptly contracted into the 

 tip, which is about 2.5 cm. long, projecting far beyond the scales. The seed is 

 pale brown, 5 mm. long, scarcely half the length of its pale, thin wing. 



The wood is very hard, strong, close-grained, durable, bright dark orange to 

 brown; its specific gravity is about 0.74, the third heaviest wood of our coniferous 

 trees; it takes a fine polish and is largely used in the manufactuA' of furniture, 

 also extensively for railroad ties and fence posts. A sweetish substance resemb- 

 ling dextrine is exuded when this tree is wounded, and used by the Indians as food. 



This, by far the grandest of the Larches, seems not to have been cultivated in 

 Europe.^ It is said not to thrive in the eastern United States unless grafted upon 

 the roots of some other member of the genus. 



