Illustrations of Conifers. 55 



LARIX EUROP^EA (De Candolle). COMMON LARCH. 



Veitch's Man. Conif. ed. 2, p. 891 (1900). 



Trees of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. II. p. 849 (1907). 



A TREE 80 to 150 feet in height with a straight tapering trunk 10 

 to 15 feet in girth. Bark exfoliating in thin irregularly-shaped plates, 

 becoming very thick in old trees. Branches spreading, more or less 

 upturned at the ends. 



Branchlets slender, glabrous, greyish yellow. Leaves light green, 

 soft in texture, those on the terminal shoots shorter, broader and 

 more acuminate than those in the tufts, the latter up to 1 inch long, 

 obtuse ; upper surface flat or rounded ; lower surface keeled. 



Cones ovoid-cylindric, but variable in size and shape, 1 - 1 inches 

 long, composed of six to nine series of imbricated sub-orbicular pale- 

 brown, pubescent scales, entire in margin ; bracts slightly exserted. 

 Seed with a wing nearly as long as the scale. 



Larix europcea, which is one of the commonest of conifers in cul- 

 tivation, grows wild on the Alps, the mountains of Silesia and Moravia, 

 Russian Poland and the Carpathians at altitudes from 1,300 to 8,000 

 feet. It attains its maximum elevation in the Dauphine'. The common 

 larch is extensively planted on account of the valuable timber which it 

 yields and the rapidity of its growth. The wood is very durable and 

 suitable for general work on an estate, especially for gate-posts and 

 fencing. It is not much used for constructive purposes as it is very 

 liable to twist. The date of introduction into England is probably 

 1629 as it is mentioned as a very rare tree in Parkinson's Paradisus 

 published in that year. 



The best specimen at Bayfordbury planted in 1838 is 86 feet high 

 with a girth of 8 feet 7 inches. 



