1 164 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



The tree, which has been known to the Chinese as poh or peh from the earliest 

 times, was planted l by the founder of the Yin dynasty about the altars of the spirits 

 of the land. In the Ch'un Ts'iu Wei (100 B.C.), the cypress was directed to be 

 planted around the tumuli, where feudal princes were buried, the pine being reserved 

 for the tombs of the emperors ; while Koelreuteria and Sophora were planted around 

 the graves of officials of various degrees, only the willow being allowed in the case 

 of the common people. 



This species is cultivated in the eastern Himalayas, in Nepal, Sikkim, and 

 Bhutan, 2 at 4000 to 8000 ft., chiefly near temples and monasteries, and no doubt it 

 was early introduced from western China by the Buddhist monks. Sir J. Hooker 8 

 measured a tree in a temple at Doobdi, probably the oldest specimen in Sikkim, at 

 6470 ft. elevation, apparently 90 ft. high, and with a girth of i6 ft. at 5 ft. from 

 the ground. This tree was not pyramidal, as all the young trees were, but had 

 spreading branches, those at the top being dead and broken. 



According to Gamble 4 it is a fine species, easy to grow, and in the Dhobijhora 

 plantation near Kurseong, trees planted in 1866 had attained in 1899 a girth of over 

 4 ft. There are several specimens about Darjeeling, and a remarkably fine tree at 

 the Tasingthong Monastery in British Bhutan. 



The wood is moderately hard, close and even in the grain, light yellow, with 

 the annual rays only visible in young trees, but with concentric bands of lighter 

 and darker tissue. The medullary rays are very fine, close, and numerous. There 

 are occasional resin-ducts and resin-cells. 



Lambert thought that this species was introduced from south China by 

 W. Kerr in 1804 ; but Loudon says " supposed to have been introduced in 1808, but 

 respecting which we know nothing with certainty," and was in doubt as to whether 

 a pendulous cypress at Chiswick, and another growing in the Kew Arboretum in 

 1838, were this species. 5 Fortune 6 sent cones to Standish in 1848, from which 

 plants were raised at Bagshot. A further supply of seed was also forwarded from 

 Huichou by Fortune in 1853. All the seedlings planted out at Kew 5 were soon killed ; 

 and this species is not hardy, 7 except in the south-west of England and in Ireland. 



(A. H.) 



This tree is rarely seen except in the south and west, 8 and is too delicate to 



1 Bretschneider, Bot. Sinicum, ii. 336, 38 1 (1892). The name poh is also given to Thuya orientalis,Juniperus chinensis, 

 and Libocedrus macrotepis. 



2 Griffith, Itin. Notes, 131, 143, found this tree in Bhutan at 6400 ft. often attaining 80 ft. in height. Anderson, in 

 Eden, Political Missions to Bootan, Botany, 135 (1865), says it is cultivated much more frequently in Bhutan than in Sikkim, 

 and at lower elevations, down to 2000 ft., while in Sikkim it is never found lower than 5000 ft. 



3 Himalayan Journals, i. 316, 317, 336, fig. on 337 (1854). 

 * Indian Timbers, 697 (1902). 



6 J. Smith, Records of Kew Gardens, 290 (1880), says that a plant at Kew, 9 ft. high in 1864, and known as the 

 " weeping cypress of China," was perfectly hardy, and had been introduced prior to Fortune's time. This is no longer 

 living, and doubtless was a pendulous variety of Thuya orientalis. 



Cf. Lindley, in Gard. Chron. 1849, p. 243, where it is erroneously stated that Fortune obtained the cones from a place 

 200 miles north of Shanghai. We have to understand here south-west of Shanghai, as Fortune collected this seed at 

 Huichou, in Anhui. The most northerly point ever reached by Fortune was Soochow, lat. 31 19'. 



T It is frequently seen in conservatories as a handsome pot plant, with slightly glaucous, juvenile acicular foliage. Some 

 of the branchlets, however, usually display adult leaves of the normal form, and occasionally bear cones. This juvenile form 

 is readily propagated by cuttings, and is often considered to be a juniper. 



8 A tree in the park at Bath stood uninjured for twenty years, and was 20 ft. high in 1880 (Gard. Chron. xiv. 503 

 (1880)). It has succumbed since. At Linton, Kent, a tree was reported to Ik 16 ft. high in the same year. 



