A. FIRMA, HOMOLEPIS, BRACK YPHYLLA 79 



dulating depression that we are calling notched or 

 emarginate — has also corrugated or fissured shoots 

 with pubescence in their grooves ; has also longer, 

 thicker, broader leaves, of a lighter, almost yellow- 

 grass-green colour, the Anglo-Saxon representative 

 (A. Pectinata), on the other hand, has less acutely 

 notched or emarginate tops to leaf, of smaller size 

 and dark-green colour, with pubescence scattered 

 indiscriminately upon its smooth shoots. 



From these more nearly allied similarities, the A. 

 Brachyphylla and Homolepis — which we will treat 

 here, for the time being, as one and the same, or in 

 inseparable Siamese- twin relationship — the A. Firma 

 perhaps differs less, but very sufficiently, when we 

 start to sum up his points. 



The A. Fiima, as we have said, has pubescence in 

 the grooves of his corrugated shoots, whereas the 

 Brachyphylla-cum-Homolepis is devoid of anything 

 of the sort. The leaves of the latter displa}^ very 

 bright and conspicuous stomata on one side of the 

 leaf, if not — and we say it with hesitancy, because it 

 is not authoritatively admitted — occasionally a faint 

 tracing of broken bands of stomata upon the other 

 and upper-lying side. The stomata on the A. Firma, 

 as the moon to the sun, are comparatively very dull 

 affairs. They consist of two murky inconspicuous 

 bands on one surface. 



Cones received from Japan manifest clear differ- 

 ences. Those of the A. Firma are of more rotund 

 and stumpy-looking proportions, larger at the base 

 than the top, while the cones of the Brach}'phylla 

 are of a uniform, cylindrical, more elongated shape. 



A few cones have appeared with us here and there, 

 and in places the number of which you could count 

 on one man's fingers, but, in a general way and for 

 the most part, instituting a hunt for them in England 

 would be a vain quest, with little more chance of a 



