CEPHALOTAXUS FORTUNE!. 113 



the undergrowth in woods composed of Maples, Cryptomeria 

 and Cypress. At and near its northern limit it is a low 

 shapeless bush such as it is usually seen in Great Britain ; on the 

 Hakone mountain's it forms a bushy tree 20 to 25 feet high. It 

 was introduced to the Botanic Garden at Leide (Leyden) about 

 the year 1829 by Dr. Siebold. 



Cephalotaxus Fortunei . 



In Great Britain, a shrub or low tree not exceeding 20 25 feet high, 

 the trunk usually forked or divided into three or four ascending stems 

 at a short distance from the ground, the outer bark peeling off in flakes 

 exposing a reddish brown inner cortex. Primary branches in pseudo- 

 whorls of three four, spreading or ascending ; branchlets distichous and 

 opposite. Buds ovoid-conic, acute, 0'2 inch long ; perulse ovate-lanceolate, 

 keeled and with a mucronate tip. Leaves pseudo-distichous, linear, 

 acuminate, 1'5 3 inches long, falcately curved and recurved at the tip, 

 dark green with a median line above, paler with a narrow keel beneath. 

 Staminate flowers 0'25 inch in diameter, in pairs in the axils of opposite, 

 or nearly opposite leaves. Fruit ovoid-elliptic, 1*125 inCh long and 

 0'75 inch in diameter at the broadest with a dull chestnut-brown skin 

 when mature. 



Cephalotaxus Fortunei, Hooker, W. in Bot. Mag. t. 4499 (1850). Carriere, Traite 

 Conif. ed. II. 718. Parlatore, D. C. Prodr. Xvl. 503. Gordon, Pinet. ed. II. 68. 

 Masters in Gard. Chron. XXI. (1884), p. 114 ; and in Journ. R. Hort. Soc. XIV. 

 201. Beissner, Nadelholzk. 183, with fig. 



This was introduced in 1849 by Robert Fortune who discovered it in 

 the province of Shan-si in north China while on a mission to that 

 region for the Horticultural Society of London and who stated that the 

 tree grew to a height of from 40 to 60 feet. As seen in the gardens 

 and shrubberies of Great Britain, it is the most distinct of the three 

 species described in these pages, but although it has been in our midst 

 half a century, the height of the oldest specimens scarcely exceed 

 20 feet, and they have for the most part an unshapely form on 

 account of irregular branching. Younger specimens growing in 

 shade in favourable situations are more ornamental ; they take the 

 form of a plumose bush well furnished with bright foliage, and afford 

 a pleasing contrast with their surroundings. Cephalotaxus Fortunei, 

 in common with several plants included in other Orders, commemo- 

 rates one of the most successful botanical and horticultural collectors 

 of his time. 



ROBERT FORTUNE (1812 1880) was a native of Berwickshire, and was educated at the 

 parish school of Edrom. Showing an early preference for gardening, he served an 

 apprenticeship in private gardens and afterwards in the Botanic Garden at Edinburgh 

 where he remained between three and four years. In 1841 he came to London on 

 being appointed a foreman in the Garden of the Horticultural Society at Chiswick, 

 and two years later he was commissioned by the Society to proceed to China to collect 

 plants. He arrived in China in July 1843 and at once entered upon that career of 

 collecting which afterwards proved so fruitful. He visited Hongkong, Macao and 

 Canton, and thence proceeded noithwards to Chusan and Shanghai, and in 1844 he 



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