Seed was collected by Wilson in 1904, and plants have been raised, which are growing well at Veitch’s nursery, Coombe Wood.
This species, being a purely alpine tree of no great size, will probably be of no value as a forest tree, resembling in that respect its immediate allies L. Griffithii and L. Lyallii, between which it occupies an intermediate position as regards botanical characters. (A.H.)
LARIX AMERICANA, Tamarack
- Larix americana, Michaux, Fl. Bor. Am. ii. 203 (1803); Sargent, Silva N. Am. xii. 7, t. 593 (1898), and Trees N. Am. 35 (1905); Kent, Veitch’s Man. Conif. 389 (1900).
- Larix americana, Michaux, var. rubra, Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iv. 2400 (1838).
- Larix tenuifolia, Salisbury, Trans. Linn. Soc. viii. 314 (1807).
- Larix microcarpa, Desfontaines, Hist. Arb. ii. 597 (1809); Lawson, Agric. Man. 388 (1836).
- Larix laricina, Koch, Dendrologie, II. ii. 263 (1873).
- Larix pendula, Masters, Journ. Roy. Hort. Soc. xiv. 218 (1892). (Not Salisbury.)
- Pinus Larix americana nigra, Muenchausen, Hausv. v. 226 (1770).
- Pinus laricina, Du Roi, Obs. Bot. 49 (1771).
- Pinus intermedia, Wangenheim, Beit. Hölz. Forst. Nord Am. Hölz. 42, t. 16, f. 37 (1787).
- Pinus microcarpa, Lambert, Pinus, i. 58, t. 37 (1803).
- Abies microcarpa, Poiret, Lamarck’s Dict. vi. 514 (1804).
A tree attaining in America about 80 feet in height and 6 feet in girth. Bark separating in thin small polygonal or roundish scales about an inch in diameter, which are closely appressed, and show when they fall off the reddish cortex beneath. Young branchlets slender, often glaucous, glabrous, or with a few scattered hairs in the grooves between the pulvini; older branchlets glabrous, shining brown. Base of the shoot girt with a short sheath of the previous season’s bud-scales, no ring of pubescence being visible. Short shoots small, blackish, glabrous. Terminal buds globose, slightly resinous, glabrous, with the basal scales subulately pointed. Lateral buds hemispherical, resinous, dark brown. Apical buds of the short shoots broadly conical, surrounded at the base by a ring of brown pubescence.
Leaves short and slender, not exceeding 1¼ inch in length, rounded at the apex, light green ; upper surface flat or rounded, without stomata, except two broken lines near the tip; lower surface deeply keeled with two bands of stomata, each of one to two lines.
Staminate flowers sessile, shorter than in L. europæa. Pistillate flowers ovoid, reddish, very small; bracts pointing upwards and outwards, not reflected or recurved, 1⁄8 to 1⁄6 inch long, oblong, scarcely emarginate at the apex, reddish with a green midrib and mucro, the latter cuspidate and very short, about 1⁄30 inch long.
Cones small, globose, consisting of three to four spiral rows of five scales each, reddish brown when ripe, 1⁄2 to 2⁄3 inch long. Scales gaping widely at the apex of the cone, longer than broad, about 2⁄5 inch long ; upper margin rounded, bevelled, slightly crenulate, not recurved or reflected. Bract concealed, minute, about 1⁄6 inch long.
