1873.] NOTES ON HARDY CONIFERS. 347 



It prefers a dry, airy, but sheltered situation, and a good rich soil, 

 and in order to allow it to develop its true character, should always be 

 allowed sufficient space to be free from contact with the other plants. 



R. filicoides {tlie Fern-like Retinospora). — Like the preceding, 

 this is a dwarf species, very hardy in this country, and forms a singu- 

 larly elegant bushy shrub, with abundance of small branches divided 

 into flat, frond-like branchlets. The foliage is small, but thickly set on 

 the stems, and has a rich, bright-green colour, which it retains all over 

 the year. It is altogether a most distinct and desirable plant, well 

 suited for a rockery, or indeed any situation where a miniature, slow- 

 growing evergreen is required. 



R. leptoclada {the flat hranchletted Retinospora) is another 

 dwarf form never found in its native valleys higher than from 4 to 6 

 feet. It is a favourite pot-plant with the Japanese, and as such is met 

 with very frequently in the gardens of Yeddo. In this country it is 

 an exquisitely pretty plant of a sharply conical shape, the branches 

 very dense, and divided into numerous short flattened branchlets, each 

 one resembling the fronds of a Tern or Lycopod. The foliage has a 

 distinct silvery-grey colour, assuming a darker hue in winter. It is a 

 superb winter garden or rockery plant, and ought to be extensively 

 grown, both for its neat form and its distinct colour. 



R. lycopodioides {the Cluh-Moss Retinospora), also a dwarf 

 species, with a spreading rather than a conical habit of growth, the 

 branches very abundant, and divided into slender branchlets, densely 

 clothed with leaves imbricated round the stem. The colour is bright 

 green — equally so in winter as in summer. It is an elegant and dis- 

 tinct-looking plant, well worthy of cultivation, and suitable for similar 

 purposes as the other dwarf species, and like them of slow growth. 



R. obtusa {the llimt -leaved Retinospora). — This magnificent 

 species is found in various districts in Japan, particularly on the 

 Island of Niphon, where it is the principal forest-tree, and rises to 

 heights of from 70 to 100 feet, with a straight arrow-like stem from 

 3 to 5 feet in diameter at the base. Its timber is fine-grained, capable 

 of receiving a brilliant polish, and of a beautiful white colour — qualities 

 so much appreciated by the Japanese, that they regard it as sacred, 

 call it the " Tree of the Sun," and use it in the construction of their 

 temples and other religious buildings. 



Though as yet a comparative stranger to British gardens, it is 

 already widely distributed ; and enough has been seen of it to prove 

 that it is a most valuable lawn specimen-plant, of free growth, and 

 thoroughly hardy, thriving in almost every district of the country and 

 in every variety of soil, and an acquisition equal in importance to any 

 of the grand introductions of a similar kind from California. 



