724 SKETCH OF THE CONIFERS OF JAPAX. 



of jDountains, in the province of Kinsin, or as Siebold writes it,- 

 on Mount Ivojasan in the province of Kii. According to him, it 

 should also be found in some other parts of that island and of the 

 island of Sil\ok. It is, however, chiefly in a state of cultivatioa 

 thtit it is met with, its varieties being great favourites with 

 the Japanese, and largely planted in their gardens and about 

 their temples. 



Fig. 196. 



It is a pyramidal tree with dense foliage, and, Mr, Veitdi 

 informs us, reaches the height of 70 or 80 feet. An interest- 

 ing wood cut from a block executed by a Japanese artist, which 

 had been brought home by Mr. Veitch, bearing to be a portrait 

 of a specimen growing in Japan, will be found in the Gardeners* 

 Chronicle, 1861. Mr. Gordon, on the authority of Mr. Fortune, 

 says it reaches from 100 to 150 feet in height. Siebold describes 

 it as only 13 or 15 feet in height, *but this is a mistake, arising 

 no doubt from his having seen only some of the smaller plants. 



Dr. Lindley has pointed out that the Sciadopitys is nearly 

 related to the genus Wellinrftonia, a statement which Mr. Gordon 

 in his "Pinetum'* says *'from all appearances seems very ques- 

 tionable." Mr. Gordon must have overlooked the close resem- 

 blance between the fructification of these trees, a point which we 

 all know furnishes much more important specific and generic 

 characters than the foliiige. If the reader will compare figs. 

 Idob and 195^, showing the scale of Soiadopitys with its cupressi- 

 form pendent seeds, arranged in imbricated rows with fig. 197, 

 which shows the same parts in Wellingtonia gigantea, he cannot 



p 

 r 



Fig. 197.— "Wellingtonia erkantea. 



fail to be struck with the justice of Dr. Lindley*3 views, and 

 the acuteuess of his discrlmiiifition. 



Tile name Sciadopitys was given to it by Siebold from the Greek 

 words l^Kiabiov, signifying the umbel characteristic of umbelli- 

 ferous plants, and ^trvj, pine-tree. Mr. Gordon refers the fii^t 

 part of the name to aKia (he calls it uKiSoy, but that must be a 



