Page:TheTreesOfGreatBritainAndIreland vol02B.djvu/307

Rh

A tree, attaining in the Kurile Islands a height of 70 feet and a girth of 7 to 8 feet. Bark, according to Mayr, scarcely distinguishable from that of the Japanese larch. Young branchlets covered with a moderately dense, wavy, irregular pubescence. Branchlets of the second year shining reddish brown, pubescent. Base of the shoot girt by a ring of the previous season's bud-scales, the uppermost of which are loose and reflected, no ring of pubescence being visible; short shoots dark red, or almost black, shining. Terminal buds dark red, ovoid, with comparatively few scales, which are acuminate, non-resinous, ciliate with brown silky hairs. Lateral buds ovoid, dark red, with ciliate scales. Apical buds of the short shoots hemispherical, dark red, with no ring of pubescence at the base.

Leaves glaucous, short, broad, and curved, about an inch long, rounded at the apex, few in a bundle, usually twenty to thirty, spreading so as to form a wide open cup around the bud; upper surface flattened, green without stomata; lower surface deeply keeled, with two bands of stomata, each of five lines.

Flowers not seen. Cones small, cylindrical, about $3/4$ inch long, composed of few scales, less than twenty, with the bracts conspicuous at the base of the cone, but concealed elsewhere by the upper scales. Scales oval, longer than broad, about $1/3$ inch long; upper margin thin, emarginate, slightly bevelled, not reflected; outer surface minutely pubescent towards the base. Bract panduriform, about half the length of the scale, terminated by a very short mucro. Seeds lying on the scale in two depressions which are separated by a membranous ridge, with the wings slightly divergent and extending up to the margin of the scale. Seed about $1/8$ inch long; seed with wing about $1/3$ inch long; wing broadest just above the seed.

This tree was first distinguished as a species by Dr. Mayr, the distinguished dendrologist and traveller, who found it in the Kurile Islands, especially on Iturupp, where it forms forests of some extent. Sargent gives an excellent illustration, plate xxvi. in the Forest Flora of Japan, from a photograph taken by Dr. Mayr, and I am able to show its aspect in the same island from two photographs kindly given me by the Imperial Japanese Forest Department (Plate 107). The upper shows a forest of larch on Iturupp; the lower a scattered group near the shore on the same island.

The tree was commonly planted in the neighbourhood of Sapporo, and it was introduced into Europe in 1888 by Dr. Mayr, and seems to grow almost as well as the Japanese larch, at least when young. There is a tree 15 feet high at Grafrath,