^Qi 



SKETCH OF THE CONIFERS OF JAPAN. 



lets, surrounded at the base by the persistent scales of the leaf- 

 bearing buds. Scales obovate or obovato-subrhomboidul, broadlj 

 wedge-shaped from the base, rounded, thinned at the margin and 

 irregularly crenulated, tender for their size, coriaceous, glabrous, 

 bright chestnut (figs. 135 & 136). Bracts minute, linear- obtuse, 

 entire, coriaceous, scarcely equaUing in length the fourth part of 



Fig. 135. 



Fig. 136. 



the scale, as shown in fig. 135. Seeds, shown in situ in fig. 136, 

 rather small, wing rather broad, with its back nearly straight, and 

 front gently rounded, 



Siebold informs us that he saw this superb Fir for the first 

 time during his journey to Jedo, in the sacred groves around 

 the temples of Mijako- The form of its cones, and the entire 

 habit of the tree, forcibly recalled to his mind the common 

 spruce. At Jedo he received branches of cultivated specimens ; 

 but he thinks that it should be found wild in the mountains of 

 Nikao. From other accounts, it appears that it forms great 

 forests on the high mountains which stretch along the frontiers of 

 Dewa and Mutsa, all the way to the northern coast of Nippon, 

 and according to Japanese reports worthy of trust, it is to be 

 found in the Kurile Isles. It is also found wild on the peninsula 

 of Korai, and Siebold obtained a branch of a specimen introduced 

 from thence to Japan under the name of Tojosen Momi, which 

 signifies Fir of Korai. Transplanted by him from the gardens of 

 Ohosaka to that of Dezima, he tells us that it prospered poorly, 

 on account of the too elevated temperature of the climate. 

 ^ Our information regarding this tree has not been much increased 

 since Siebold's original account. Carriere, in his treatise above 



