Larix 387 



were plantations of European larch in every case adjoining those of the Japanese 

 tree, and the former were all badly affected by disease. Henry concluded that the 

 Japanese larch was practically immune from disease, though on his return to Kew 

 he received specimens from estates in Perthshire and Dumfriesshire which were 

 undoubtedly suffering from Peziza.^ As, with the exception of Prof Sargent and 

 Dr. Mayr, no one had studied this tree in its native climate, I paid particular 

 attention to it during my visit to Japan in 1904, and, as I have stated^ elsewhere, 

 came away with the impression that it is not likely to supersede the European larch 

 as a forest tree, and am very doubtful whether it can be expected to become a 

 profitable one, to plant under ordinary conditions. Though when young its growth 

 is extremely rapid and vigorous, it has a great tendency to form spreading branches, 

 and even in the much more favourable soil and climate of Japan, rarely, if ever, attains 

 anything like the dimensions which the European larch does in Great Britain. 



Mayr's opinion on the suitability of the tree for economic plantations in Europe 

 is the same as my own, and he considers that though it may grow faster than the 

 European larch for the first twenty years, yet that it will eventually be surpassed 

 if planted under precisely similar conditions. He also agrees with me that though 

 in selected positions and under careful cultivation it may not seem so liable as the 

 European larch to the attacks of Peziza, yet that it is not immune, and the figures 

 which he gives of its growth in Germany show that it has the same tendency to 

 produce spreading branches there as in Great Britain. In a note on this tree by 

 K. Kume, chief of the Forestry Bureau in Japan, in Trans. Scot. Arb. Soc. xx. 28, 

 January 1907, a yield table at various ages is given, which shows that on soils of 

 medium quality in Japan the mean basal diameter at 100 years old is about a foot, the 

 mean height 92 feet, and the stem volume per acre 6330 cubic feet. I will only note 

 that what is meant by land of medium quality in Japan is very superior to what it is in 

 this country. In Germany Mayr says that the seed falls in autumn from the cones, 

 which are busily sought for by squirrels, and that self-sown seed has germinated 

 freely at Grafrath under trees twenty-two years old. 



Remarkable Trees 



There are many specimens now of about 40 feet high in various parts of the 

 country, but of those that I have seen the one figured, which is growing at Tort- 

 worth (Plate 108), is perhaps the finest. It measured in 1904, 45 feet by 4 feet 

 7 inches, and was covered with cones. It is growing on red sandy soil, and Lord 

 Ducie thinks it is one of the earliest introductions. At Hollycombe, Sussex, the 

 seat of J. C. Hawkshaw, Esq., Mr. G. Marshall measured a tree 45 feet by 2 feet 

 4 inches in 1904. At Hildenley, Yorkshire, there is a fine tree about 40 feet high, 

 which produces good seed. A clump of fine trees is reported ^ to be growing at 

 Bothalhaugh, near Morpeth. There is also a fine specimen at Brook House, 

 Haywards Heath, the residence of Mrs. Stephenson Clarke. 



' See note by Mr. Massee m/onrn. Board Agrici<lhire, 501 (1904)- 

 " Trans. Scot. Arb. Soc. xix. 77 {1906). ' Gard. Chroii. xxxix. 282 (1906). 



