Page:TheTreesOfGreatBritainAndIreland vol02B.djvu/248

348 ::** Young branchlets glabrous.
 * † Branchlets yellowish grey in colour.
 * 8. Larix europæa, De Candolle. Europe.
 * Branchlets of the second year shining, glabrous, yellowish grey.
 * 8. Larix sibirica, Ledebour, var. Russia.
 * †† Branchlets brown in colour.
 * 9. Larix americana, Michaux. North America.
 * 10. Larix dahurica, Turczaninow. Siberia.
 * 10. Larix occidentalis, Nuttall, var.
 * 10. Larix dahurica, Turczaninow. Siberia.
 * 10. Larix occidentalis, Nuttall, var.
 * 10. Larix occidentalis, Nuttall, var.
 * 10. Larix occidentalis, Nuttall, var.

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 usefulness 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.