58 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



when measured iu 1917, 27 to 33 feet in height, with a girth of 24 to 26 ins. 

 at one metre above the giouiid. They produced cones in 1916, which ai'e 

 unlike those of L. kptolepis. Dr. Coaz considered these trees to be the 

 progeny of a cross between the Japanese larch and the European larch ; but 

 the real soui-ce of the pollen he leaves in doubt. In the photograph, repro- 

 duced with his description, of the mother Japanese larch tree at Tscharnerholz, 

 there is standing near it a group of trees, which are said to be Larix europaea, 

 var. sibirica ; and it is very probable that the pollen came from these Siberian 

 larches, which were thirty-five years old in 1917. It would seem, then, that 

 Larur Marschliiisi is a cross between L. leptolepis and L. sibirica ; but further 

 investigation is required. 



The reverse cross, Laria: sibirica ? x Z. hploUpin J is said to have lieeu 

 produced artificially in Kussia by V, Parashink, from an abstract' of whose 

 paper tlie following is taken — " The liussiau larch is very severely attacked 

 by Peziza Willkommii and by Colcophora laricclla, so as to render its cultiva- 

 tion inadvisable. The Japanese larch, on the contrary, is almost imuiuue 

 against fungi or insects ; its growth is, however, less rapid (in Kussia), aad 

 the quality of timber obtained from it more liable to decay. Is it possible, 

 by cross-breeding, to combine in a single subject the valuable characters of 

 the two typos ? With this object he fertilized specimens of the Kussiau 

 larch {L. sibirica) with the pollen of thu Japanese species. Tiio hybrids 

 of one year old can be seen in a plot of the experimental station at Nova 

 Alexandria." 



III.— The Dunkeld Hybrid Labcu, Laki.\ Eueolepis. 



The " Dunkeld hybrid larch " is the name given by foresters to seedlings 

 that have been rei>oatodly raised from the seed of certain Japanese larch 

 trees (Larix leptolepis), ten in number,- which aie growing near the road 

 leading to the mansion at Dunkeld, Perthshire. These trees are fairly 

 Nigorous, being about 50 feet high in 1916, when they had attained thirty- 

 one years old. Near them are growing numerous European larches (Lai-ix 

 europaea), from which pollen can easily be wafted by the wind; and cross- 

 fertilization undoubtedly occurs. The seedlings of the ten trees differ 

 considerably iu appearance from ordinary Japanese larch, such as is raised 

 in this country from seed imported from Japan. 



' Interna*. Bull. Agric Intel!., iii, p. 2201 (1012). ISnmhink, rdyin!: im the 

 lMilAnic»l n.tnto. L. tiiroffun var. tih\iifi, gpeiiks of the Kus-sian larch aa tiic " European 

 Urcb at the eastern end (Ruasia) of its distribution " ; but it is a very distinct species, 

 now always correctly named Zxirvr tibirxcn. 



' These ten trees were raised from scijd imported from Japan in 18tl4, and sown in 

 1885. Cf. Trans. K. Scott. Arbor. Soc. iv, 273 (1898). 



