PINACEiE 185 



the most widely used timbers of Japan. Its uses include all 

 kinds of building construction, panelling, furniture, joinery, 

 boxes, etc., and it is not readily attacked by insects. The bark 

 is also of importance, for it is carefully stripped from trees when 

 they are cut down, and used for roofing houses and other buildings. ^ 



Professor Sargent says^ that Japan owes much of the beauty 

 of its groves and gardens to the Crypiomeria. The tall, shaft-like 

 stems tapering abruptly from a wide base, covered by the bright, 

 reddish bark, and surmounted by regular conical dark green 

 heads, are very impressive and are only rivalled by the Sequoias 

 of California. They occur in natural and planted forests over 

 extensive areas south of Hakodate and are particularly plentiful 

 in Hondo. With the exception of Pinus densiflora, Cryptomeria 

 is the most commonly grown conifer in Japan, thriving in open 

 positions in a variety of soils. It has been planted in Japan 

 from very early times. Under forest conditions it grows very 

 fast and in State forests is treated on a 80-100 years' rotation ; the 

 rotation in the Imperial forests being 60-120 years. Cryptomeria 

 is stated to form 30 per cent.^ of the total area of Japanese forests, 

 but it is also widely planted in gardens and about temples. 

 Sargent ^ gives an account of the impressive groups of this tree 

 which surround the temples and the tomb of leyasu at Nikko 

 and of the avenue which leads up to the tomb, along which the 

 descendants of leyasu travelled from the capital of the Shoguns 

 to do honour to the burial-place of the founder of the Tokagawa 

 dynasty. This avenue, he says, " has not its equal in stately 

 grandeur." The story of the creation of the avenue is as follows : 

 " When the body of leyasu was laid to rest on the Nikko Hills, 

 his successor in the Shogunate called upon the Daimyos of the 

 empire to send each a stone or a bronze lantern to decorate the 

 grounds about the mortuary temples. All complied but one 

 man who was too poor to send a lantern but offered to plant 

 trees along the road that future visitors to the tomb might be 

 protected from the heat of the sun." His offer was accepted 

 and has proved one of the most magnificent of all monuments. 

 The avenue is kept intact, trees blown or cut down being replaced. 

 This famous avenue was formed at the beginning of the seven- 

 teenth century. 



Wilson ^ states that the most impressive Cryptomeria avenue 

 he saw was the one on Koya-san on the borders of Yamato and 

 Kii provinces, said to have been planted by a priest, Ogo Shonin, 

 about 650 years ago. It is more than a mile long and consists of 

 trees of surpassing grandeur, 120 to 180 ft. high and up to 25 ft. 

 in girth. 



^Sargent, Forest Flora of Japan, p. 74 (1894.). * Sargent, loc. cit. 

 ^ Forestry of Japan, 93 (1910). * Loc. cit. 



^Conifers of Japan, 69 (1916). 



