as it is called in Japanese, on account of the shoots, which 
serve as leaves, spreading out like the ribs of an umbrella. 
The first plant which reached Europe was obtained by 
Thomas Lobb in 1853 from the Buitenzorg Botanic 
Garden, to which, owing to Dutch influence, many Japan- 
ese plants had been introduced. This did not long 
survive, but in 1861 Mr. John Gould Veitch brought 
seeds from Japan, and about the same time they were 
obtained by Robert Fortune. 
The figure is from the oldest plant in the Kew Pinetum. 
It was probably obtained, as were many subsequent 
specimens, from Messrs. Veitch. Although the second 
largest recorded specimen in the country, it grows very 
slowly, and has only attained the height of fifteen feet. 
Sciadopitys is of peculiar interest to botanists on account 
of the anomalous character of what, for want of a better 
term, must be called its “foliage.” This at first sight 
consists of ‘leaves’? not unlike those of a Pine. They 
are, however, really leaf-like shoots (cladodia) produced in 
the axils of the true leaves, which are reduced to mere 
membranous scales. This was first pointed out by the late 
Alexander Dickson (Report of the London Botanical 
Congress, 1866, p. 124). It was confirmed by the in- 
teresting observations of Carriére (Rev. Hort. 1868, 
pp. 150-151) who met with a case in which they divided, 
and produced secondary tufts of leaf-like organs, be- 
having, in fact, like true branches. The problem was 
discussed on anatomical grounds by Von Mohl in 1871, in 
the last paper published by that eminent botanist. He 
arrived at the conclusion, in which he has been generally 
followed, that the cladode of Sciadopitys is an axillary shoot 
or branch with two coherent leaves. 
The systematic position of Sciadopitys amongst Coni- 
Jere is not easily defined, and must probably remain more 
or less artificial. Bentham and Hooker include it amongst 
the Araucariee, from which it is aberrant, in having 
numerous ovules. I have followed Parlatore, Masters, 
and others, in placing it in Taxodiex. 
Descr.—An evergreen tree, reaching 100 feet in Japan. 
Bark reddish-brown, deciduous in strips. Branches sub- 
verticillate, spreading horizontally. Leaves scale-like, 
deltoid, caducous, bearing in their axils cladodes or leaf- 
