Page:TheTreesOfGreatBritainAndIreland vol02B.djvu/314

388 At Dunkeld there is a tree planted close to a common larch, from which seedlings were raised at my suggestion by the late D. Keir, which appear to be hybrids between the two species. His son, who succeeded him as forester to the Duke of Atholl, and who has watched the growth of these seedlings, considers them to be intermediate between the two species; but it is yet too soon to be certain.

At Abercairney, Perthshire, the seat of Col. Drummond Moray, there is a tree, raised from seed brought from Japan in 1883, which, measured by Henry in 1904, was 38 feet by 3 feet 5 inches. At Blair Drummond, in the same county, he measured ten trees planted in 1888, one of which was 44 feet high, and the average girth 2 feet 5 inches. They were all healthy though growing among common larch which was diseased.

At Cullen House, Banffshire, Mr. Campbell tells me that there is a tree 45 feet by 34 feet. At Kirkennan, near Dalbeattie, Kircudbrightshire, two larches sown in 1885 were in 1904 41 feet by 2 feet and 35 feet by 1 foot 11 inches. We are indebted for this information to the owner Mr. W. Maxwell.

In Germany at Schloss Lütetsburg, it seems to have grown faster than with us, for it is stated that trees thirty-five to forty years old are 17 to 20 metres high, with a girth at 1 metre of 1.80 to 2.70 metres.

A tree, attaining in the Himalayas about 60 feet in height, with thick brown bark, and wide-spreading, long and pendulous branches,

Young branchlets, reddish, covered with a dense wavy, more or less appressed pubescence, and girt at the base by a sheath of the previous season's bud-scales, the uppermost of which are very broad, loose, membranous, and reflected. Branchlets of the second year very stout, dull reddish brown, pubescent. Short shoots broad and stout, fringed above by very large, loose, reflected, pubescent, membranous bud-scales. Terminal buds broadly conical, non-resinous, with pubescent scales. Lateral buds ovoid, pointing outwards and forwards, non-resinous, pubescent. Apical buds of the short shoots conical, with loose pubescent scales,

Leaves light green in colour, about 1¼ inch long, ending in a short rounded point; upper surface rounded or flat, with one or two broken lines of stomata near the apex; lower surface deeply keeled with two bands of stomata, each of three