46 Nr. 2. C. H. OSTENFELD and C. SYRACH LARSEN: 
lin as being 20—30 m., while Mayr found it at its best 
on Etorofu in the Kurile Islands, and measured specimens 
as high as 22 m. with a girth up to 1 m. breast-high above 
the level of the ground; in the exposed localities on Shi- 
kotan it only occurred as small, stunted specimens, 10 ft. 
high. While its growth and outward form suffer under 
exposure, the influence of the damp atmosphere endows 
it with fine, luxuriant foliage, and the transition between 
the normal, well-developed larch forest, and the stunted, 
wind-swept, but luxuriantly green shrub of the coast local- 
ities, may be exceedingly abrupt (MıDDENDORFF: 1867, p.606). 
Departing from the coastal districts inland into the 
mountain ranges, L. Gmelini is again found growing in the 
most inaccessible spots and in the very highest tree-clad 
regions. In the north this fact is very pronounced, the 
only other tree accompanying it to its highest points of 
growth being the low, creeping Pinus pumila; Miıp- 
DENDORFF has supplied an exhaustive description of this 
circumstance in the Stanowoj Range, especially in the 
district around the source of the little Ujan River, 1200 m. 
above sea-level (1. c. 1867, p. 616). 
Further south, indeed, the larch contrives to force its 
way high up among the mountains, but only occurs scat- 
tered among Abies sibirica and Pinus cembra var. sibirica 
at the extreme limit, which, on Sokondo, south-east of 
Lake Baikal, reaches 2000 m. above sea-level (RADDE in 
BAER & HELMERSEN: Beitr. Kennt. Russ. Reich. XXIII, 1861, 
pp. 468—472. Vide Mıppr. 1867, p. 622). 
L. Gmelini is thus the dominant tree, outnumbering all 
others far northwards out upon the flat, wet tracts, and 
in part also, upon the upper tree-clad mountain regions, 
and, finally, outwards to the coast, but it by no means 
