Larix 389 



(occasionally five) lines. In cultivated specimens, the leaves are fringed on each 

 side with a very thin and narrow membranous translucent border. 



Staminate flowers, f inch long, cylindrical, raised on short stout stalks, about 

 ^^ inch long. Pistillate flowers ovoid ; bracts reflected at their bases, with the 

 macros pointing downwards, oblong, truncate or slightly concave at the apex, the 

 green midrib being prolonged into a mucro about } inch long. 



Cones 3 to 4 inches long, cylindrical, tapering to a narrow, flattened apex, 

 supported on a short stalk, glaucous green or purplish, with orange-brown bracts 

 before ripening, composed of five spiral rows of scales, eighteen to twenty scales in 

 each row, which, on the opening of the cone, stand almost at right angles to its axis, 

 the bracts being exserted with their mucros directed upwards. Scales quadrangular, 

 with a cuneate base, about ^ inch in width and length ; upper margin truncate and 

 slightly emarginate ; outer surface radially furrowed, densely pubescent towards the 

 base. Bract lanceolate, nearly as long or quite as long as the scale, the mucro, often 

 incurved, projecting beyond the scale about x\ inch. Seeds lying in slight depres- 

 sions on the scale, their wings widely divergent and not extending to its upper 

 margin. Seed, white on the inner side, shining dark brown on the outer side, 

 about ^ inch long ; seed with wing about ^^ inch long ; wing brownish, rather 

 opaque, broadest about the middle. Cotyledons^ five to six, which, in the seedling, 

 are linear, pointed, and much longer than the succeeding leaves. (A. H.) 



The Sikkim larch is confined, so far as we know at present, to a rather narrow 

 area in the Himalaya, from eastern Nepal to Bhutan, but very possibly will be found 

 farther east. It was discovered by Griffith, but not distinguished until Sir Joseph 

 Hooker found it in E. Nepal in December 1848." Here it was only a small tree 

 20 to 40 feet high, differing from the European larch, in having very long, pensile, 

 whip-like branches. It is called " Saar" by the Lepchas, and " Boargasella " by the 

 Nepalese, who said that it was only found as far west as the sources of the Cosi 

 river. In Sikkim it is common in the interior valleys of the Lachen, Lachoong, and 

 their tributaries from about 8000 to 12,000 feet elevation, and here attains a larger 

 size, but is not found in the forests of British Sikkim. In Illustrations of Himalayan 

 Plants from Drawings by Cathcari, where it is beautifully figured, Sir Joseph states 

 that it grows to a height of 60 feet in deep valleys, but prefers the dry rocky ancient 

 moraines formed by glaciers, and also grows on grassy slopes where the drainage is 

 good. On my journey to Tibet in 1870 I saw this tree in the Lachoong valley, 

 but nowhere forming a forest, and usually scattered singly in rather open places, 

 where it seemed to me to have a much less erect and regular growth, with branches 

 more drooping in habit than any other larch. Sir Joseph Hooker says that the 

 wood is soft and white, but a specimen from the Chumbi valley, authenticated by 

 cones, is described by Gamble as having red heart-wood with a slow growth, twenty- 

 one rings to the inch, and a weight of 32 lbs. to the foot. 



Though introduced by Sir Joseph Hooker, who sent seeds to Kew in 1848, this 

 tree has, except in a few places in the south-west of England, failed to grow in 

 Europe. He says that the seedlings raised from his seeds were 3 to 4 feet high in 



' Masters, loc cil, '^ Himalayan Journals, i. 255. 



