260 



N. Ord. CONIFERS. 

 Tribe Pinea. 



Genus Finns, Linn. 



260. Pinus Larix,* Linn., Sp. Plant, ed. I, p. 1001 (1753). 



Larch. 



. Abies Larix, Lam. Larix europsea, DC. L. decidua, Miller. 



Figures. Woodville, t. 4 ; Nees, t. 84; Berg & Sch.,t. 11 b; Reichenb., 

 Ic. Fl. Germ., xi, t. 531; Nees, Gen. Fl. Gerin. ; Lambert, 111. Gen. 

 Pinus, ed. 3, t. 48. 



Description. A tall tree, reaching 80 feet or more in height, 

 with a straight trunk and spreading whorled branches, the 

 smaller branchlets slender and elegantly pendent; bark flaky, 

 whitish- or pinkish-grey, rosy-red beneath. Leaves deciduous, 

 appearing in spring in spreading brush-like tufts, each con- 

 taining numerous (30 40) leaves, from perennial permanent 

 rounded buds projecting horizontally from the slender branchlets 

 with a cup-shaped mouth; when full grown about an inch 

 long, linear, rather blunt, entire, smooth, bright green. Fls. 

 monoecious. Male catkins sessile, ovoid, reaching J inch long, 

 surrounded at the base by a cup formed of persistent adnate 

 bracts, and by some inner deciduous, reflexed, fringed, brown 

 scales ; stamens numerous, crowded, anthers almost sessile 

 on the thick central column, with a short recurved crest at the 

 summit, 2 -celled, opening longitudinally, pollen globose, pale 

 yellow. Female cones shortly stalked, f inch long, erect, ovoid, 

 surrounded at the base with spreading linear leaves ; bracts mem- 

 branaceous, oblong or oval, blunt with a sharp central point, 

 bright dark pink, the midrib and point green; carpellary scales 

 not \ the length of the bracts, and adnate to their base, rounded ; 

 ovules 2, inverse, bottle-shaped, with a large papillose mouth. 

 Ripe cones erect, light, 1 or li inch long, broadly ovoid, pale 

 greyish-brown, axis solid and woody, carpellary scales hard, 



* Larix, Pliny, from XdpiKa, the name of the resin in the time of Dioscorides. 



