144 Forests and Trees 



The wood is light and weak and not valuable as timber, al- 

 though occasionally sawn into lumber. 



The tree is distributed through the mountains of British 

 Columbia, particularly the south-central part, and ascends to 

 an altitude of ten thousand feet on some of the mountains. 



VI. THE LARCHES 

 Genus Larix 



The larches are tall trees, with weak, scattered, often droop- 

 ing branches, which are roughened by short, scaly, rather 

 budlike branchlets. The leaves are light green, flexible, tri- 

 angular or four-sided and arranged in crowded bunches or fas- 

 cicles, borne on the short lateral branchlets. Unlike the leaves 

 of all other conifers except the bald cypress they are deciduous, 

 turning yellow in the fall before dropping. The cones are small 

 and erect, and fall at the end cf the first year. 



The larches, with their straight trunks and soft light green 

 foliage, have never attracted the attention they deserve. Not 

 being evergreen they are not conspicuous in the winter, while 

 in summer they are overlooked or confused with the pines and 

 spruces. 



These are trees of the cooler parts of the northern hemisphere, 

 three species being American and the remaining four or five 

 either European or Asiatic. The name "larix" given to the 

 genus is the ancient classical name given to the European larch. 



i. TAMARACK. Larix laricina. (Du Roi) Koch. 



This is the eastern representative of the larches in America. 

 It is a slender tree with a straight, gradually tapering trunk, 

 seldom more than eighteen inches in diameter and covered with 

 rough, scaly, reddish bark. 



The wood is light brown, heavy, hard and strong, but not 



