THE CONIFERS OF JAPAH. 487 



Thuyopsis ? Standishii, Gordon, Suppl. p. 100 (1862). 

 Thuya gigantea, Parlatore in BO. Prod. xvi. 2, p. 457 (1868); 

 Koch; (haud Nuttall). 



Thuya gigantea, var. japonica, Franchet et Savatier, Enum. 

 Plant. Jap. i. p. 469 (1875). 



" In Japonia spontanea?, in urbe Tedo vidit cultam cl. Maxi- 

 mowicz ! Fortasse ex America boreali introducta," Franchet et 

 Savatier, I. c. In ins. Nippon ad montes una cum T. dolabrata 

 crescens, Maries in litt. ! 



This is a plant of much interest — from its structure, as it has 

 been placed sometimes in Thuyopsis, sometimes in Thuya ; from 

 its history, because it has been supposed to be cultivated only in 

 Japan, and to have been introduced from Western America, and 

 to be, in fact, only a cultivated variety of T. gigantea, Nutt As a 

 genus, Thuyopsis was separated from Thuya on account of the 

 presence of five seeds to each fertile scale, the true Thuya? having 

 but two. The plant before us has, in cultivation, usually three 

 seeds to each fertile scale, as has also the American T gigantea, 

 which is therefore included in the section Macrothuya by Bentham 

 and Hooker. 



Up till lately it has not been known in a wild state in Japan ; 

 but Mr. Maries assures me that the plant grows on the moun- 

 tains of Central Japan, together with T. dolabrata ; and plants 

 are now growing in Messrs. Veitch's nursery, from seed sent home 

 from this district by him. 



On the assumption that it was of American origin, the differ- 

 ences that exist between it and T. gigantea, though intrinsically 

 slight, become of much interest. Mr. Syme, whose knowledge of 

 cultivated Conifers is so thorough, concurred with Parlatore in 

 considering our present plant a form of T. gigantea ; but at 

 the time that he expressed that opinion he was not aware of the 

 existence of Thuya japonica in Japan in any other than a culti- 

 vated form. 



From the American T. gigantea the Japanese plant may be 

 distinguished by its branches, which are more rounded and not 

 so flattened as in T. gigantea, in which they are even concave on 

 the lower surface — by its leaves, which are oblong-obtuse, not 

 broadly ovate and sharply acuminate, and which are moreover 

 marked by a conspicuous gland — and by its cones, which are more 

 nearly globose than in the American plant, in which they are 

 oblong. The scales of the cone in the two species follow' nearly 



