Distribution
The most recent account of the distribution of the European larch is by Cieslar,[1] the distinguished Austrian forester, who points out that the tree in the wild state occupies four distinct and separate regions, namely, the Alps, the Silesia- Moravia boundary, Russian Poland, and the Tatra mountains in the Carpathians. Cieslar strongly disputes the commonly accepted view that the larch is everywhere an alpine tree, occurring at high elevations; and holds that the Silesian and Alpine larches are two distinct climatic varieties, differing in habit and mode of growth, in period of vegetation and in the altitude at which they naturally grow. He has not apparently studied the Polish tree, of which I have seen no specimens, nor the Carpathian larch.
In the Alps, the larch is widely distributed, occurring in French territory in Savoy, Provence, and Dauphiné; and in the Maritime Alps it reaches about 44° 30' N. lat., its most southerly and at the same time its most westerly limit. In Switzerland the larch, while generally found, does not occur in the Jura and in the cantons of Glarus, Schwyz, Upper and Lower Unterwald; it reaches its most northerly point in Switzerland on the Gabris in Appenzell. Extending eastwards it occurs in Vorarlberg, in the Alps of Bavaria and Salzburg, in the Tyrol and in Carinthia. According to Cieslar it is wild in the provinces of Upper and Lower Austria only south of the Danube, but is found near Vienna as a planted tree. It is absent from lower Styria and nearly the whole of the Karst; and in Carniola does not occur wild south of the Sannthaler Alps; from Idria the southern limit of distribution runs westward into Italy through the Isonzo valley. In Italy the larch is confined strictly to the Alps and is not wild in the Apennines, where it has been occasionally planted with unfavourable results, as the tree, after growing rapidly for twenty years, slackens in growth and becomes decrepit at 40 to 45 years old.[2] Elwes saw it planted in the Sila mountains of Calabria, where it was producing seed at 10 to 15 years old.
In the Alps the larch is certainly an alpine tree, often reaching the timber line in company with Pinus Cembra and Pinus montana; while lower down, but above the zone of the beech, it is usually met with either pure or in company with the spruce and silver fir. It occurs, mixed with the beech, at low elevations, according to Cieslar in certain valleys of the Tyrol. M. Coaz,[3] Inspector-General of Forests of Switzerland, is of opinion that the forests of pure larch which now exist in the Alps are not natural, but have been produced artificially by cutting the ancient mixed woods. The larch has taken possession of the felled areas and has succeeded well as regards growth; but the pure forests are liable to insect attack and possibly also to disease; so that he thinks that it is necessary to restore artificially the ancient and natural condition of the forest. The highest elevation recorded for the larch is 8200 feet in the Dauphiné. The upper limit in the Central
