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LARIX SIBIRICA, Russian Larch

 

Larix sibirica, Ledebour, Fl. Alt. iv. 204 (1833); Willkomm, Forstliche Flora, 153 (1887); Kent, Veitch's Man. Coniferæ, 402 (1900); Mayr, Fremdländ. Wald- u. Parkbäume, 311 (1906).

Larix intermedia, Lawson, Agric. Man. 389 (1836); Turczaninow, Bull. Soc. Nat. Mosc. xi, 101 (1838).

Larix archangelica, Lawson, loc. cit.

Larix europæa, De Candolle, var. sibirica, Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iv. 2352 (1838).

Larix rossica, Sabine, ex Loudon, Encyl. Trees, 1054 (1842); Trautvetter, Act. Hort. Petrop, ix. 211 (1884).

Larix altaica, Nelson (Senilis), Pinaceæ, 84 (1866).

Larix decidua, Miller, vars. sibirica and rossica; Regel, Gartenflora, xx. 101, t. 684, ff. 1, 2, and 4 (1871).

Pinus intermedia, Fischer, Scht. Anz. Entdeck. Phys. Chem. Nat. et Techn. viii. 3. Heft. (1831). (Not Wangenheim.)

Pinus Ledebourii, Endlicher, Syn. Conif. 131 (1847).

Abies Ledebourii, Ruprecht,^[1] Beit. Pflanz. Russ. Reich. ii. 56 (1845).

 

A tree attaining in Siberia over 100 feet in height and 9 to 12 feet in girth. Bark resembling that of the European larch. Young branchlets slender; in specimens from the Ural mountains and Tobolsk, pubescent with long hairs in the furrows between the pulvini; in specimens from the Altai, glabrous; girt at the base by a sheath of the previous season's bud-scales, within which a ring of pubescence is visible. Branchlets of the second year glabrous, greyish-yellow, shining. Terminal buds broadly conical, resinous, with ciliate scales. Lateral buds hemispherical, dark brown, resinous. Apical buds of the short shoots broadly conical, girt at the base by a dense ring of pubescence. Leaves soft in texture, very long and slender, up to 2 inches in length, narrower than in L. europæa, sharp-pointed, agreeing with that species in the arrangement of the stomata, but more deeply keeled on the lower surface. Staminate flowers as in the European larch, Pistillate flowers according to Willkomm, ovoid, pale green. Cones, when unopened, cylindrical, with the terminal scales not gaping and the bracts quite concealed; variable in size, up to 14 inch long, composed of five spiral rows of scales, five to six scales in each row. Scales convex from side to side and also from the base to the apex, quadrangular, about as long as broad ( inch); upper margin rounded or truncate, thin, entire, not bevelled, inflected; outer surface finely striate, covered with a reddish-brown pubescence, which is most marked towards the base of the scale. Bract ovate or oblong with a cuspidate point, extending about one-third the height of the scale. Seeds lying on the scale in shallow depressions, with their wings widely divergent and not extending to its upper and outer margin. Seed ¹⁄₆ inch long; with its wing ¹⁄₂ to ⁵⁄₈ inch long; wing about ¹⁄₅ inch in width, broadest about the middle.

This species is amply distinct from L. europæa, differing in the long and slender leaves, which appear about ten days earlier in the spring; and in the

1. This name is quoted wrongly as Larix Ledebourii, Ruprecht, in Index Kewensis, ii. 31, and in Sargent, Silva N. Amer, xii. 4.