The European Larch —Lanx Euro pee a 
I 'HE European Larch is justly one of the 
favorite conifers for ornamental plant¬ 
ing. It is a beautiful tree having an extra¬ 
ordinary grace of outline, with pendent 
hranchlets clothed through the summer with 
delicate tufts of slender leaves of a green that 
varies from the lightest tints in early spring 
to the deep green of summer and the yellow- 
green and green-yellow of autumn. Even 
after the leaves have fallen the tree has a 
certain grace that renders it attractive through 
the winter, the drooping branches being 
studded along their sides by short projec¬ 
tions, from the ends of which the leaves 
arise, as well as here and there by the inter¬ 
esting upright cones of a form and size much 
more attractive than the cones of the Ameri¬ 
can Larch. 
A little study of the branch shown at the 
right of the middle on the plate will give a 
definite knowledge of the conditions of 
blossoming of this Larch. Along the left- 
hand side of the twig are numerous fas¬ 
cicles of leaves just beginning to push out, 
and at the bottom on the same side of the 
twig there is a cluster of the pollen-bearing 
flowers. On the opposite side the most con¬ 
spicuous features are the two large clusters 
of seed-bearing blossoms arising from a nest 
of developing leaves. By a comparison of 
these two sets of ffowers with the two cones 
shown in the picture at the left one can read¬ 
ily see that the former will develop into cones 
like the latter. 
According to Mrs. Dyson the native home 
of this Larch “is on the snow mountains of 
Germany, Austria and Italy. It climbs 
higher than the Silver Lir, as high as the 
Norway Spruce; but the Spruce seems to 
like best the side of the mountain looking 
toward the north and the Larch prefers the 
brighter southern side.” 
The cones do not remain upon the trees 
so long after shedding the seeds as do those 
of the Tamarack, and the tree is much better 
adapted to comparatively dry soils than is 
the latter. Lor ornamental planting the 
European species has many advantages, not 
the least of which is that it may almost 
always be obtained of nurserymen in any 
desired quantity and at comparatively little 
expense. 
