Tsuga 



247 



TSUGA DIVERSIFOLIA, Japanese Hemlock 



Tsuga diversifolia, Masters, /our. Linn. Soc. {Bot.) xviii. 514 (1881); Mayr, Abiet. des Jap. Reiches 

 61, t. xiv. fig. 13 (1890); Sargent, Garden and Forest, vi. 495, fig. 73 (1893), and x. 491, 

 fig. 63 (1897); Kent, Veitch's Man. Coniferm, ^S'j (1900). 



Ait'ei diversifolia, Maximowicz, Mel. Biol. vi. 373 (1867). 



A smaller tree than Siebold's hemlock, which it resembles in habit. 



Young shoots pubescent, the pubescence occurring on both the leaf-bases and the 

 intervening furrows. Leaves arranged as in Tsuga Sieboldii, but considerably 

 shorter, scarcely exceeding \ inch in length, oblong, uniform in breadth, shining and 

 dark green above with a median furrow continued to the rounded and emarginate 

 apex ; lower surface with green midrib and two narrow well-defined white bands of 

 stomata ; margin entire. Buds red, pyriform, flattened above ; scales rounded at the 

 apex, minutely pubescent and ciliate. 



Cones subsessile, pendent or deflected, ovoid ; scales shining, orbicular-oblong, 

 truncate at the base, with edge slightly bevelled and thickened. Bract minute, con- 

 cealed, rhomboid. Seed with a short terminal wing, which is not decurrent along 

 its side. (A. H.) 



Distribution of the Japanese Tsugas 



In Japan I saw both species in their native forests ; but so far as I could learn 

 they are not distinguished by the foresters and are both called Tsuga (pronounced 

 tsunga). By the Japanese botanists Tsuga Sieboldii is termed Tsuga, the other 

 species being named Kuro-tsuga or Kome-tsuga. Of the two, the latter apparently 

 has a more northern range than Tsuga Sieboldii. I saw it in the forest round Lake 

 Yumoto at 4000 to 5000 feet elevation, where it is a picturesque and graceful tree 

 of no great size. Both species, however, according to Shirasawa, are found in this 

 district. Tsuga diversifolia also occurred high up in the Atera valley. Further 

 south in the Kisogawa valley and at Koyasan I saw Tsuga Sieboldii, which at 2000 

 to 3000 feet attains a large size, growing scattered in mixed forests and not 

 gregariously, like the other species at Lake Yumoto. I measured a tree at Koyasan, 

 which had been felled; it was over 100 feet in height, of which half was free from 

 branches, the butt being about 3 feet in diameter. I estimated it as 250 to 300 years 

 old, though the growth had been so slow that I could not count the rings beyond 

 150. The wood of this tree, as I was told by the chief priest of the Gemyo-in 

 temple, who was my host at Koyasan, is even better than that of Hinoki {Cupressus 

 obtusa) ; and much of the wood used in building the temple had been Tsuga. Old 

 trees, however, are now so scarce that the timber cannot be obtained in quantity. I 

 bought some beautiful boards cut from it at Osaka, which have a pale yellow colour 

 and very fine wavy figure. The wood is also made into shingles, which are said to 

 last about forty years, and it has lately been used for paper-making. The bark is 

 used for tanning fishing-nets, and the timber sells in Tokyo at thirty-five to forty yen 



