Larix 393 



Seeds lying on the scale in minute depressions, with their wings only slightly 

 divergent and not reaching to its upper margin, ^^ inch long ; wing J inch long, 

 broadest just above the seed. (A. H.) 



Distribution 



The American larch is found in the United States from North Pennsylvania, 

 Northern Indiana and Illinois, and Central Minnesota through the New England 

 States, where, however, it is only found in cold and swampy places. In Newfound- 

 land, Labrador, and the eastern provinces of Canada it occupies swampy ground, and 

 extends from York Factory on Hudson Bay as far as Fort Churchill, 67° 30' N., and 

 west to Athabasca and Peace river districts, and in Alberta where it has been found 

 forty miles S.W. of Edmonton.^ Northwards it extends to the border of the barren 

 lands. Mr. J. M. Macoun informs me that it was found by Mr. Camsell in the angle 

 between the Snake river and the upper part of Peel river. This place is just within 

 the Yukon district. He also states that it extends westward twenty-two miles up the 

 Dease river, and northward along the upper Liard river to lat. 6r 30'. He has 

 heard several people who have been on the Yukon speak of the larch, so that it must 

 be quite common in some parts, though no definite data are as yet given. 



The tamarack, as it is called in most parts of N. America, is a tree which I 

 know but little in a state of nature, and which never seems to have received 

 the attention from foresters which it deserves ; for though it nowhere attains 

 the size of the common larch, it seems able to thrive in undrained and swampy 

 ground where that would die ; and though a slow-growing tree in comparison with 

 the common larch, its timber has the same valuable qualities as others of the genus. 



Henry saw this species in Minnesota in 1906. On the Cass Lake Forest 

 Reserve it occurs in the swampy ground between the pine-covered sand-dunes, in 

 company with balsam fir, Thuya, black and white spruce, birch, and willow. The 

 largest that he saw measured 81 feet by 4 feet 7 inches. The trees are remarkable for 

 their buttressed roots, which branch and extend close to the surface and even above 

 ground for as much as 6 feet. Seedlings were numerous in felled areas near 

 Erskine, where the larch remaining uncut, occurs in swamps either pure or mixed 

 only with birch. They grow very rapidly in the wet ground, taking root in mossy 

 elevated patches and not in the water of the swamps; and averaged 10 feet high 

 at seven years old, and were making leaders of i to 2 feet annually. He saw no 

 stumps larger than 2 feet in diameter, and the tree in Minnesota rarely attains a 

 greater size than 80 feet by 6 feet. In Garden and Forest, 1890, p. 60, there is, 

 however, mention of a tamarack in Minnesota, which measured 7 feet 8 inches in 

 girth and was estimated at 125 feet high. 



In most parts of New England and over the greater part of British North 

 America the tamarack is a well-known tree, but rarely attains any great size. 

 The average in the neighbourhood of Ottawa is not over 50 to 60 feet, but when 

 the tree is planted on drier, better land it will grow faster and attain 80 feet or 

 more. I noticed that though it seeds freely the seedlings require more light than 



Bell in Scottish Geogr. J/ii^. xiii. 2S3. 

 II 2 C 



