Larix 351 



Distribution 



The most recent account of the distribution of the European larch is by Cieslar/ 

 the distinguished Austrian forester, who points out that the tree in the wild state 

 occupies four distinct and separate regions, namely, the Alps, the Silesia-Moravia 

 boundary, Russian Poland, and the Tatra mountains in the Carpathians. Cieslar 

 strongly disputes the commonly accepted view that the larch is everywhere an 

 alpine tree, occurring at high elevations ; and holds that the Silesian and Alpine 

 larches are two distinct climatic varieties, differing in habit and mode of growth, 

 in period of vegetation and in the altitude at which they naturally grow. He has 

 not apparently studied the Polish tree, of which I have seen no specimens, nor the 

 Carpathian larch. 



In the Alps, the larch is widely distributed, occurring in French territory in 

 Savoy, Provence, and Dauphine ; and in the Maritime Alps it reaches about 44'' 30' 

 N. lat., its most southerly and at the same time its most westerly limit. In Switzer- 

 land the larch, while generally found, does not occur in the Jura and in the cantons 

 of Glarus, Schwyz, Upper and Lower Unterwald ; it reaches its most northerly 

 point in Switzerland on the Gabris in Appenzell. Extending eastwards it occurs in 

 Vorarlberg, in the Alps of Bavaria and Salzburg, in the Tyrol and in Carinthia. 

 According to Cieslar it is wild in the provinces of Upper and Lower Austria 

 only south of the Danube, but is found near Vienna as a planted tree. It is absent 

 from lower Styria and nearly the whole of the Karst ; and in Carniola does not 

 occur wild south of the Sannthaler Alps ; from Idria the southern limit of distri- 

 bution runs westward into Italy through the Isonzo valley. In Italy the larch is 

 confined strictly to the Alps and is not wild in the Apennines, where it has been 

 occasionally planted with unfavourable results, as the tree, after growing rapidly for 

 twenty years, slackens in growth and becomes decrepit at 40 to 45 years old.^ 

 Elwes saw it planted in the Sila mountains of Calabria, where it was producing seed 

 at 10 to 15 years old. 



In the Alps the larch is certainly an alpine tree, often reaching the timber 

 line in company with Pinus Cenibra and Pimis montana ; while lower down, but 

 above the zone of the beech, it is usually met with either pure or in company with 

 the spruce and silver fir. It occurs, mixed with the beech, at low elevations, 

 according to Cieslar in certain valleys of the Tyrol. M. Coaz,^ Inspector-General 

 of Forests of Switzerland, is of opinion that the forests of pure larch which now 

 exist in the Alps are not natural, but have been produced artificially by cutting the 

 ancient mixed woods. The larch has taken possession of the felled areas and has 

 succeeded well as regards growth ; but the pure forests are liable to insect attack 

 and possibly also to disease ; so that he thinks that it is necessary to restore 

 artificially the ancient and natural condition of the forest. The highest elevation 

 recorded for the larch is 8200 feet in the Dauphine. The upper limit in the Central 



' JValdhau/iclie Sludien iiber die Ldrche, 4 (1904). '^ Borzi, Flora Forsstak I/aliana, 25 {1S79). 



' See Garden and Forest, 1S95, p. 238, for a resume of M. Coaz's monograph on " Insect Ravages in the Forests of 

 Larch on the High Alps." 



