TE0CRIUM THUYA 585 



At Kew it can be grown on a wall, but is not hardy in the open. 

 Easily increased by cuttings during the summer, and preferring a rather 

 light soil. 



THUYA. CONIFERS. 



In the now generally accepted interpretation of the word, Thuya 

 comprises six species of evergreen trees with thin, scaling bark, belonging 

 to the same group of conifers as the Chamaecyparis or flat-leaved group 

 of cypresses. They are very distinct in the cones, which are egg-shaped 

 or rounded, and have flat, oblong, and (except in T. orientalis and 

 T. dolabrata) thin scales ; very different from the peltate or top-shaped 

 scales of the cypresses. The flat, pinnately divided branchlets and the 

 leaf arrangement, however, are very similar, and the leaves are similarly 

 scale-like. Juvenile types of foliage are sometimes permanently retained 

 in T. occidentalis and T. orientalis, and are popularly known as 

 " Retinisporas " (see also under Cupressus). Small as the number of 

 species is and one of them, T. SUTCHUENENSIS, Franchet, is not in 

 cultivation unless recently introduced from China they have been 

 placed in three separate genera, viz., Biota (see T. orientalis), Thujopsis 

 (see T. dolabrata), and Thuya proper. Biota and Thujopsis have both 

 roundish or globose cones and thick scales, the former distinct also in 

 its wingless seeds. 



They all like a moist, loamy soil, and though best raised from seeds 

 can be increased by cuttings. 



T. DOLABRATA, Linnceus fil. 



(Thujopsis dolabrata, Siebold.*) 



A tree up to 40 or 50 ft. high, or a shrub of pyramidal form; branchlets 

 arranged in opposite rows (distichous), the ultimate subdivisions much 

 flattened, about \ in. wide, dark glossy green above, with conspicuous 

 glaucous patches beneath. Leaves hard and rigid, borne in four ranks; 

 those of the lateral ranks strongly keeled, \ to J in. long, incurved at the 

 point, their edges overlapping the leaves of the middle ranks, which are 

 appressed and rounded at the apex. Cones \ to f in. long, roundish; the 

 eight scales thick, woody, ending in a horn-shaped boss; seeds winged. 



Native of Japan; first introduced to Messrs Veitch's at Exeter by way of 

 the botanic garden at Buitenzorg, in Java, 1853. Its effective introduction, 

 however, took place in 1861, when seeds were sent to England by both 

 J. G. Veitch and Fortune. Seen at its best, this is a striking and beautiful 

 shrub, very distinct from the other Thuyas in its broad branchlets and its 

 rounded cones with thick woody scales. When young it is very dense in 

 habit at the base, but as it increases in height the upper growth is apt to 

 become thin and attenuated. There are trees 35 ft. high in Devon and 

 Cornwall, and I have seen good specimens in Scotland over 20 ft. high. It 

 enjoys a sheltered spot, and I think newly planted trees like a proportion 

 of peat mixed with the soil in immediate contact with the roots. 



Var. NANA, Siebold (Thujopsis laetevirens, Lindley}. A curious, dwarf 

 form, growing very slowly. Branchlets more slender, leaves smaller. 



Var. VARIEGATA. Young spray variegated with patches of creamy white, 

 II 2 P 



