THE CRYPTOMERIA 217 



We must, from a cursory observer's point of view, 

 congratulate it sincerely on the success of its conceal- 

 ment. Anything more unlike a Cedar from an 

 ordinary point of view we can scarcely imagine. 

 The bark is different, the branches are different, the 

 leaves are different, and the very colour of them is 

 different. Everything about them looks as different 

 as can be. What claims to any portion or 

 heritage — for that is the sense of the meaning of 

 the Greek word /ue'po? — of the Cedar's possessions or 

 prepossessions the Cr^-ptomerias might institute, 

 would confound and dumfound, we cannot but think, 

 the finding of any ordinarily intelligent body of 

 jurymen. If the tree itself is cryptic on the subject 

 cf whose image he bears, so also are literary authori- 

 ties — those at least that have come my way — upon 

 the question of any supposed likeness that it may 

 bear to our Cedars of Lebanon, Africa, or the Hima- 

 layas. 



The Cryptomeria, it is admitted, bears some sort 

 of resemblance to, not sufficient to present any con- 

 fusion with, the Athrotaxis, but yet enough to set 

 us wondering if they ever shared any common an- 

 cestry. As the Athrotaxis calls to mind some of the 

 short-leaved Queensland Araucarias, so we would 

 have thought, had we not learnt better by book, 

 that some sort of relationship might have existed 

 between the Cryptomeria and Araucaria. 



As between the two, Athrotaxis and Cryptomeria, 

 and the question which is which, there really should 

 arise no confusion. The Athrotaxis is altogether a 

 larger-fruited, bigger-leaved edition of the Crypto- 

 meria. Their individual identities, when seen side 

 by side, are as clear as the sun should be at noonday, 

 and as pronounced as that between a greyhound and 

 a bulldog. While the Common Cryptomeria has 

 fine, unnoticeably incurved leaves, the Athrotaxis 



