64-3 SKETCH OP THE CONIFEKS OF. JAPAiT. 



name as Koempfer's, " had no apparent relation to the few ivords 

 of KcBwpfer" His account is as follows : 



'* Among the many curious things mentioned iu that store- 

 house of learning, in which, under the name of ' Amoenitatea 

 Exotica?,' KiBmpfer collected everything that he saw from the 

 cuneiform inscriptions of Persepolis to the trees and flowers of 

 Japan, mention is made of a Japanese Larcli called Seosi, bearing 

 what are called * Nuclei pyramidati,' by which was probably 

 meant pyramidal scales to its cones. No ti'aveller has seen the, 

 tree since the days of Ivgempfer himself. Siebold takes no notice 

 of it iu his account of Japanese Conifers, although he says that a 

 kind of Larch, his Abies Leptolepisy is sometimes called Kara 

 Maatz in Japan ; that is to say, ' the fir-tree from Kara, or 

 North-eastern Asia.' But that plant has no apparent relation 

 to the few words of Ksempfer. Lambert, who had seen some 

 drawings by a Japanese artist, founded upon the Seosi the nama 

 of Pinus Koiinpferi, necessarily altered in the * Penny Cyclopaedia' 

 \x> Abies Kmnpferi, and there research was. arrested; for the 

 name appears nowhere since that time." — Gardeyiers' Chronicle, 

 loc, cit. 



"When Dr. Lindley wrote this, it ia to be remembered that 

 there were no specimens of the Ahie$ Leptolepis in this country, 

 and he of course was dependent upon Siebold's figures and 

 descriptions for a knowledge of its characters, and certainly 

 these show no apparent relation to Kiempfer's Nuclei pyramidati 



•the words which puzzled Lindley. 



Had he had specimens from Mr. Veitch's tree before him, he^ 

 would have experienced no such difficulty. The natural, undis- 

 torted translation of the words would have sufficiently met the- 

 case, Nuclei pyramidati — kernels or seeds pyramidal*?, — that is, 



not pyramidal, but having some relation to that 

 form. He would have seen that, whether he took 

 the seed alone, without the wing, or vith the 

 wing (for in 1713, the wing might not yet have 

 come to be regarded as a separate part), both, or 

 either have what may be fairly enough called a 

 pyramidate outline. This will be seen in fig. 

 171, which is a magnified representation of these 

 parts, showing also the figure given by Siebold,. 

 which is indicated by dotted lines. It will be 

 seen that the latter shows nothing pyramidal 



Kg. 171. about the seeds, or any other part, and hence 



