- ** Young branchlets glabrous.
- † Branchlets yellowish grey in colour.
- 8. Larix europæa, De Candolle. Europe.
- Branchlets of the second year shining, glabrous, yellowish grey.
- 8a. Larix sibirica, Ledebour, var. Russia.
- In certain specimens of this species the branchlets are indistinguishable from those of Larix europæa, and in the absence of cones only show a difference in the leaves, which are very long and slender in L. sibirica.
- †† Branchlets brown in colour.
- 9. Larix americana, Michaux. North America.
- Young branchlets often glaucous. JBranchlets of the second year shining brown. Short shoots blackish. Leaves short, not exceeding 1¼ inch in length.
- 10. Larix dahurica, Turczaninow. Siberia.
- Young branchlets never glaucous. Branchlets of the second year shining brown. Short shoots blackish. Leaves long, exceeding 1¼ inch.
- These two species strongly resemble each other in technical characters, but are readily distinguished, as seen in cultivation in this country, by the appearance of the branchlets, which in L. dahurica are vigorous, long, and straight, whereas in L. americana, which makes slow growth, they are short, curved, and twisted.
- 10a. Larix occidentalis, Nuttall, var.
- In glabrous specimens of this species the chestnut-brown coloured short shoots will readily distinguish them from either of the two preceding species.
Mayr says that though the various species of larch seem very different at the first sight, yet that they all have the same biological character, and are all inhabitants of the coldest limits of the forest, whether produced by latitude or altitude, and that when introduced into warmer regions or zones, they lose their economic useful- ness through premature fruitfulness or fungoid attacks. This opinion, though so often expressed in various forms by foresters of continental experience, is not strictly applicable to Great Britain, as the pages of this work will prove; and though the liability to spring frost is greater with the more northern and alpine species, yet in their native countries larches are also subject to frosts during almost every month in the year, and though the young shoots in spring and the unripened wood in autumn are often much injured by frost, yet no trees have a greater power of recovering from injuries produced by climatic influences, provided the soil is suitable; and Mayr truly says that the warmer the climate in which the larch is cultivated the better the soil it requires. He considers that the timber of all larches is practically of equal value, its quality depending on the slowness at which it is grown, rather than on the species or origin of the parent tree.
