NEW CHINESE LARCH 145 
Dahurica of England’s growth, which is now to be 
re-called the L. Pendula—and its impersonator or 
variety the L. Alaskensis. Other Dahurian affinities 
and varieties quoted are the L. Principis Rupprechtii, 
a large-coned variety, and the L. Japonica or Kam- 
tschatica. This tree has a reddish-brown pubescence, 
in contrast to the almost glabrous and whiter branch- 
lets of the Asiatic Dahurian. 
Two more about complete the list of these per- 
plexities. One is the L. Chinensis mentioned by Elwes 
and Henry. It is described as of nearest affinity to 
the L. Occidentalis and grows at high elevations. 
Another, the L. Cajanderi, was discovered in 1897 in 
E. Siberia—a swamp-loving tree, possibly a variety 
of L. Dahurica, but showing tufts of white pubescence 
absent in L. Dahurica. 
This is only a collection of the latest things in names 
of Larches, and some of the superscriptions written 
over them by discoverers, tentative travellers, and 
prima-facie observers. It has no pretence to be any 
sort of contribution towards an unravelled subject, 
which at some future day will stand in need of a 
thorough-going sifting and a putting into right 
places by eminent authorities, before the world at 
large will have a chance of becoming wiser on the 
question. 
IDENTIFICATION OF THE VARIOUS LARCHES 
We now approach the perplexing questions : How 
are ordinarily observant humans to arrive at even a 
rough-and-ready estimate of the various members 
of the Larch family ? 
There are, in the first place, the leaves, whether 
keeled on both surfaces or only on the lower; how 
many in a bundle, length and breadth or shape of 
