Page:TheTreesOfGreatBritainAndIreland vol02B.djvu/295

Rh cones, which have fewer and differently shaped scales and short concealed bracts. In the Siberian larch the scales are convex both laterally and longitudinally, whereas in the European larch they are flattened longitudinally. The seeds, moreover, of the former have longer and differently shaped wings, and do not cover the scales of the cone up to their margin as is the case in the latter.

In wild specimens both pubescent and glabrous branchlets occur. Cones from a tree, cultivated in the Botanic Garden at St. Petersburg, differ in being narrowly cylindrical, with oblong scales only half the width of wild specimens; and the bracts are also much narrower. The seeds, however, lie on the scales as in wild specimens; and the scales have the convex form and inflected upper margin of typical L. sibirica.

A supposed variety, rossica, occurring in northern Russia, was distinguished by Regel as having small cones; but as Beissner informs me in a letter, it was subsequently abandoned by Regel, and is now not noticed by Willkomm or by any Russian botanist. Sir C. Wolseley, Bart., vice-consul at Archangel, has kindly sent me excellent fruiting specimens from Archangel, which differ in no respect from the Ural larch.

The Siberian larch has an extremely wide distribution, occurring in northeastern Russia and throughout a great part of Siberia.

In European Russia it occurs wild in the governments of Archangel, Vologda, Viatka, Perm, and Orenburg. According to Korshinsky, it grows rather sparingly in the plains of northern Russia, as isolated trees in the pine forests; whereas on the mountains of the Ural chain and its branches it forms extremely large forests, sometimes pure, and sometimes mixed with pine and spruce. Its exact distribution is differently stated by various Russian authorities. Herder adds to the preceding provinces Ufa, Olonetz, eastern Finland, and the northern parts of Kostroma and of Nijni-Novgorod. Ruprecht states that it commences to grow in the northern part of the government of Olonetz beyond the city of Kargopol, from whence extensive woods of it stretch to the Ness river in the Kanin peninsula. In this peninsula it attains its most northerly point in Europe, on the Arctic circle. Further east its distribution sinks to the southward, and its most northerly point on the Ural range is about 58° latitude.

Its distribution in Siberia is not yet clearly known, as it has been confused with Larix dahurica. It would appear to be the species common in middle and southern Siberia west of Lake Baikal, while Larix dahurica apparently occupies eastern Siberia and Manchuria, a close ally of it, Larix Cajanderi, occurring in the extreme north in the lower part of the valley of the Lena, north of lat. 63°. Larix sibirica is reported from Olga Bay in Manchuria, but this requires confirmation; and it has