PINACE.^ 507 



formation of new forests. In Britain it is remarkably free from 

 insect pests, and when planted under favourable conditions few 

 evergreens are more effective. 



Elwes and Henry, loc. cit. ii, 202. 



Thuya japonica, Maximowicz. 

 Japanese Akbor-vit^. 



Thuya gigantea var. japonica, Franchet and Savatier ; T. Standishii, 

 Carriere ; Thviyopsis StamH.shii, Gordon. Neziiko. 



A small tree 30-40 ft. high with a trunk 3-7 ft. in girth, fre- 

 quently forked at a short distance from the ground. Bark thin, 

 reddish brown with grey patches, the outer bark peeling off in 

 papery rolls. Branches horizontal with the branchlets in the 

 same plane, 3-4 pinnate, drooping, not aromatic when bruised. 

 Leaves on the main axis triangular, blunt and thickened at the 

 apex ; those of the lateral branchlets smaller, yellowish green on 

 the upper side, grey-green or glaucous in the lower haff of the leaf 

 beneath ; surface without resin glands ; coiies oblong, greenish- 

 yellow when young, light brown w^hen mature ; scales 4—5 pairs, 

 thin, flexible, the middle ones fertile. Seeds small with a thin 

 membraneous wing on each side, extending beyond the apex 

 and forming a cleft. 



T. japonica differs from T. pUcata in its shorter, blunter, 

 glandless leaves, which are yellowish green above and more 

 distinctly glaucous beneath, and by the absence of a distinct 

 odour when bruised. 



A native of the mountains of Cent. Japan, where it is now one 

 of the rarest of the useful ornamental trees. In feudal times 

 it constituted with four other conifers, Thuya dolabrata, Cupressus 

 obtusa, C. pisifera and Sciadopitijs verticiUata, the famous " five 

 trees of Kiso " which were strictly preserved as " Tome-ki " 

 (the preserved tree).^ The largest natural groups of this species 

 are said to occur at elevations between 900 and 1,800 metres in the 

 provinces of Yumoto, Bungo, Satsuma, Omi, Iwashiro, Shimot- 

 suke and Uzen. It is also said to be wild in N. Corea. Wilson says - 

 that the only place in which he saw the tree wild in quantity was 

 in the ascent of Adzuma-san from Toge on the borders of Uzen and 

 Iwashiro provinces, where on steep slopes it is common beyond 

 the hot springs between 1,000-1,300 m. altitude. He records 

 its highest altitude as 1,800-2,300 m. around Yumoto in the 

 Nikko region. Fortune discovered it in gardens at Tokio in 1860, 

 and it was sent by him to Standish's nursery at Ascot. 



Wood soft, hght, easily worked, durable ; heartwood pale 



^Forestry of Japan, 27 (1910). 

 '^Wilson, Conifers of Japan, 75 (1916). 



