YL LARCH 
Larix lyallii Parlatore 
Of all the trees in the Canadian Rockies, Lyall larch is the most 
interesting and the most picturesque. It is usually found between 
6,000 and 8,000 feet elevation, whete its bright green foliage is easily 
recognized from a distance, skirting the darker green spruces and fits 
at timberline. A rugged tree, gnarled and twisted by the wind into 
picturesque forms, it reaches a height of fifty feet 1n favorable local- 
ities, with a trunk diameter of twenty inches. The cones ate produced 
about once in three yeats. The wood is tough and hard to cut, but it 
makes a vety hot although not lasting fire. As soon as a hard frost 
comes, the leaves turn bright yellow and soon fall. Doctor Charles S. 
Sargent and William M. Canby journeyed all the way from Boston 
in 1898 to find this tree in fruit. I had been stopping at Lake Louise 
and had procured a number of branches of Lyall larch with beauti- 
ful cones, from the shores of Lake Agnes. On artiving at Banff, I left 
my ptecious specimens on the rack beside the dining room door, while 
I got my supper. When the meal was finished, the bunch of larch had 
disappeated. On investigation I found the two botanists sitting on the 
floor, with the Lyall larch between them, filled with enthusiasm 
that their long journey would be a fruitful one. 
Lyall larch has a very narrow tange. It grows in a few places in 
Montana and in northern Oregon, but is plentiful only in Alberta and 
British Columbia. 
The branch sketched came from near Lake McArthur, twelve 
miles by trail from Hector, British Columbia, at an altitude of 7,500 
feet. 
PLATE 381 
