CUPR. OBTUSA AND THYOIDES 173 



halo about it, since it is the sacred tree of Shinto 

 worship. 



It is in great request for building purposes, and 

 temples are made of it. It makes excellent panelling, 

 and shows a very good figure. It takes to lacquering 

 well by reason of its fine grain, and is much used for 

 this treatment. It is well known to us here by the 

 little, contorted, dwarf-grown Japanese cultivated 

 specimens that so many of us have been induced to 

 buy for curiosity's sake, and we hope this short 

 account of its career will convince readers that we are 

 discussing a tree of no ordinary interest or merit. 



It, too, has its varieties, and one called Tetragona 

 Aurea displays great garden merit. We have in our 

 mind two planted by Mr. E. Miller Mundy at Shipley, 

 in Derbyshire. They make a particularly picturesque 

 show in those garden grounds. In thirty years they 

 have only grown 10 ft. 6 in., w^hile the one at Castle- 

 welan contrived only 5 ft. in twenty years — an 

 increase of development which seems more on a par 

 with the leisurely growth of a geological tertiary 

 formation than what we would expect from an 

 ascendant tree. 



This compactness and density of growth absolve 

 them to some extent from wTong-doing in their 

 deficiency to rise to greater heights. 



Wanting the sun, why does the caltha fade ? 

 Why does the cypress flourish in the shade ? 



M. Prior. 



The C. Thyoides remains alone of this Group A 

 now unmentioned. It was introduced in 1 736, but has 

 never got a hold in our English climate and estima- 

 tion, in spite of its many natural fascinations. Either 

 the swamps where it was placed proved too cold for 

 it, or the summer is not warm enough, or we have 

 not found the exact spot of the judicious mixture 



