I^crix.] LXXVI. CONIFEK^. 



531 



4. LARIX, Tournef. 



Beciduous resinous trees. Leaves needle-shaped, single on elongating 

 shobts and on tlie first shoots of seedlings, but otherwise in dense fas- 

 cicles on arrested branchlets, which do not as a rule lengthen out and 

 develop, into side branches. Male catkins sessUe, lateral on short thick 

 scaly but leafless peduncles (stunted branchlets). Anther-cells 2, longitu- 

 dinally dehiscent. Female catkins often on the same branches as the 

 male, at the ends of arrested leaf-bearing branchlets. Ovules inverted, in 

 pairs at the base of the carpellary scales, these in the axils of cuspidate, 

 1-nerved bracts, which are longer than the scales. Cones erect ; scales per- 

 sistent, with a thin obtuse edge ; bracts generally protruding between the 

 scales when the fruit is ripe. Seeds oily, winged. 



1. L. Grifathii, H. f. & Th. ; Hook. lU. Him. PI. t. 21.— gyn. Pinus 

 Oriffithii, Parlat. in DC. Prodr. xvi. ii. 411. Vern. SaJi, saar, Sikkim. 



A graceful tree with conical crown and long pendulous branches. Leaves 

 slender, narrow-linear, about 1 in. long. Male catkins ovoid-cylindric, | in. 

 long. Cones cylindric, 2-3 in. long, erect — i. e., on recurved branchlets on 

 the pendulous branches. Bracts reflexed, subulate, twice the length of 

 the carpeUary scales, persistent in fruit. 



Imier ranges of West Bhutan, Sikkim, and East Nepal, between 8000 and 

 12,000 ft. Said to extend west to the sources of the Dud Kosi river, which 

 descends from Mount Everest. Fl. May, the fruit ripening in Oct. of the same 

 year. Wood white, soft, without heartwood, but splits well, and is reckoned 

 the most durable of the coniferous timbers exported into Tibet from Sikkim 

 (Hook. Him. Joum. ii. 44). 



The European Larch is L. europcea, DC. — Syn. PimisLarix, Linn. ; Larche, 

 Germ. ; M^leze, Fr. ; Larice, Ital. — a large tree with small ovoid cones l-l| 

 in. long, the bracts dry when the cones npen, and barely protrude beyond the 

 lower carpeUary scales. Indigenous in the Alps and Carpathian mountains, 

 forming extensive forests in the French Alps, pure, or mixed with Pinus Oembra 

 and P. mcntana, less abundant, and generally associated with the Spruce in 

 Switzerland, the Bavarian and Austrian Alps. It ascends to the limit of arbor- 

 escent vegetation, and is not rarely the highest tree in company with the Spruce 

 and P. Genibra. The Siberian Larch, L. sibirica, Led., which forms large forests 

 in the plains of Russia and Siberia, and is found on the Ural and Altai mountains, 

 is a difterent species. The heartwood of the European Larch is well defined, red, 

 compact, even-grained, strong, and very durable, does not warp nor split, and 

 is prized more than Oak in the mountains where it is indigenous. Resinous 

 ducts numerous, small or moderate-sized. The Romans prized the wood much. 

 PUny mentions a beam 11 6j ft. long and 23^ in. square, brought to Rome by 

 the Emperor Tiberius. The cubic ft. weighs 27-49 lb., and even more. On 

 account of the value of the wood, its rapid growth, and the certain success 

 of plantations while young, the Larch has been cultivated on a very large 

 scale far beyond the limits of its natural habitat, particularly in Germany, 

 Scotland, and France. Speaking broadly, the result is favourable up to a 

 certain age. Larch plantations, which are cut down at the age of 40-60 years. 



