17 



the seed which the merchants of Silesia bring into the market, is 

 either bought in the Tyrol or collected in Silesian forests, which 

 are unfortunately made impure by admixture of Tyrolese Larch. 

 I say unfortunately , because there is a Polish-Silesian variety 

 which is distinguished by its slender growth and by the fact that 

 its side twigs are small and stand at an acute angle with the stem, 

 a variety which approaches in growth the fine Siberian Larch. 

 The Silesian Larch would be well worth a trial in Scandinavia 

 (Danmark and Southern Norway and Sweden) and Great Britain 

 and Ireland, if one could be certain of genuine seed, possibly 

 rather from Poland than from Silesia, as the natural forests in the 

 former district might be the purest. 



THE SIBERIAN LARCH - LARIX SIBIRICA. It has been a 

 matter of dispute for many years as to whether the Siberian Larch 

 shoilld be considered a species, or if it is only a geographical 

 variety of the European Larch. Judging from the size of the seed, 

 the difference is so pronounced that the Siberian Larch must be 

 allowed an independent position. The weight of the seed varies 

 between 8.05 and 12.04 grams per 1000 grains, while that of the 

 Tyrolese Larch only amounts to from 4.66 to 6.6 grams. True, we 

 find the same great diiference in seed weight in other species. 

 For example, spruce seed from Northern Norway only weighs 

 about half as much as that from the lowlands of Central Europe, 

 and Pinus monticola seed from Northern Idaho, near the Canadian 

 border, only weighs half as much as seed from California. In these 

 cases however, there comes into play a factor which will be fully 

 dealt with later, the natural falling off of seed weight in higher 

 latitudes as well as in higher altitudes, in consequence of the 

 increased severity of the climate of the place of origin. 



The germinating capacity of Siberian Larch seed is often good; 

 the difficulty principally consists in the obtaining of the seed, and 

 this difficulty has been increasing of late years. As a result, one 

 must often be contented with very poor seed. A few years ago 

 good seed often came into the market, more recently on the other 

 hand, only that of bad quality; in the last two years 1911 12, 

 I have been unable to obtain any at all. 



The following may serve as examples of the germination ex- 

 periments: 



