sharp-pointed and not flattened or fan-shaped.




CHAPTER II

HOW TO IDENTIFY TREES--(Continued)



GROUP IV. THE LARCH AND CYPRESS

How to tell them from other trees: In summer the larch and cypress may
easily be told from other trees by their _leaves_. These are
needle-shaped and arranged in clusters with numerous leaves to each
cluster in the case of the larch, and feathery and flat in the case
of the cypress. In winter, when their leaves have dropped off, the
trees can be told by their cones, which adhere to the branches.

There are nine recognized species of larch and two of bald cypress.
The larch is characteristically a northern tree, growing in the
northern and mountainous regions of the northern hemisphere from the
Arctic circle to Pennsylvania in the New World, and in Central
Europe, Asia, and Japan in the Old World. It forms large forests in
the Alps of Switzerland and France.

The European larch and not the American is the principal species
considered here, because it is being planted extensively in this
country and in most respects is preferable to the American species.