THUYA ORIENTALIS, OR BIOTA 179 



Many others sing its praises. White settlers, 

 lumbermen, tree planters, tree writers, tree fanciers, 

 and pheasant fanciers. 



Why, in the face of all these expressions of opinion 

 from so many profound sources, it has not been more 

 extensively planted in the woodlands of England, w^e 

 cannot pretend to explain or understand. Perhaps 

 in some future or more philosophical age it will come 

 into its kingdom of appreciation. 



As a timber tree we have very little to recount of 

 the character received of the Occident alis. To sum 

 up its virtues, it has been said that it makes good 

 hedges, and this seems but damning with faint praise. 

 The cones on the Occidentalis grow in such close 

 communication that 3^ou can gather into the palm 

 of your hand a bunch that contains more than a 

 hundred of its cones. This gives sometimes a whity- 

 yellow^ aspect to the tree that can be seen at a long 

 distance. 



Like the Lawson Cypress it is polymorphous and 

 has many shapes and varieties. How these mysteri* 

 ous symptoms occur, whether transmitted by some 

 far-away ancestor or some cross purposes, or what 

 wild deviation from normal rules brought it about, 

 has yet to be clearly explained. 



The T. Japonica goes rather one worse from the 

 point of view of wood value. In its native country 

 it has been known to make good roof shingles. 



Thuya Orientalis, Biota, or Chinese Arbor 

 ViTJE. — Perhaps a few points added to the abridged 

 Table may help those for whom we write tow^ards a 

 surer acquaintance with this ornamental garden 

 product from China, and its reticulated or graceful 

 appearance of foliage. If this name Biota has any 

 connection with the Greek word ^lcoto^ — and there 

 is nothing to suppose anything to the contrary — it 

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