418 



JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



asli, 0*09 ; occasionally manufactured into lumber, but principally 

 used for fuel, posts, railway ties, &c. (C. S. Sargent). 



Citizens of the Eastern States who visit the North-west are 

 surprised to find Tamarack trees occupying dry, exposed ridges on 

 mountain sides, instead of in the low swamps that the eastern species 

 afi"ect, and still more to find the timber of the western species so 

 valuable and popular for all purposes of building, such as the manu- 

 facture of bridges, railroad ties, fence posts, and all other uses where 

 durability is desired. 



A peculiarity of the tree is the thick, coarse bark, that has the 

 protective merit of long resisting the action of forest fires. 



Recently surveyors for the California and Oregon Railway dis- 

 covered a grove of Tamarack trees on the upper waters of Luckiamute 

 River, one of the small western branches of the Willamette River, 

 and near the summit of the low range of coast mountains south-west 

 of Dallas, Oregon. 



Little could be learned of the trees except that they were tall, 

 straight, and seemed suitable for purposes of bridge-building, rail- 

 road ties, and perhaps for general lumber. Examination is desirable 

 to determine whether or not this is a distinct species, but the proba- 

 bilities are that it is an outlying form of Larix occidentalism the Great 

 Western Larch (J. G. Lemmon, "California State Board of Forestry," 

 1889-90). 



A young tree planted out for trial in Denmark some years ago has 

 made splendid growth. 



L. sibirica, Ledeb. Fl. Alt. iv. 204. L. europsea (3 sibirica, 

 Loud. Encycl. of Trees, 1054. L. decidua /3 rossica, Henk. and 

 Hochst. Conif . s. 132, partly. L. decidua (3 sibirica, Rgl. Gartenflora, 

 1871, s, 101. Abies Ledebouri, Rupr, in Beitr. z. Flor. Russl. ii. 56. 

 Finns Ledebouri, Endl. Conif. 131. P. intermedia, Fisch. in Schtshagl. 

 Anz. Entedeck. viii. 3 (not Dur.). 



This species. Professor Pallas says, is found in cold mountainous 

 places, from the Ural Mountains northwards, through Siberia and 

 Kamtschatka, to the Pacific Ocean. It delights in a middle station 

 on the sides of mountains, where it is sheltered from the north and 

 exposed to the east wind, growing in a gravelly or rocky soil. In 

 valleys and marshes, or on the very tops of mountains, it never occurs. 

 It extends as far north as lat. 68°, where it forms a trailing slirub ; 

 but in the south of Siberia and Russia it grows to the same height 

 and bulk as the European Larch. In the north it has more the habit 

 of the American Larch ; but it difiers, he adds?, from that species very 

 essentially (Fl. Ross. pt. 1, p. 2). 



I have seen fine examples of this tree in Russia and in Finland, and 

 I am convinced of its hardiness. I also think its growth is even 

 better, and more straight and erect, than is the case with the European, 

 species. 



