THUIA GIGANTEA. 239 



As an ornamental tree in this country Thuia dolabrata takes a high 

 rank ; its growth in its young state whether raised from seed or from 

 cuttings is slow, but when established in a moist loamy soil and 

 protected from piercing winds its progress is satisfactory, and under 

 such conditions it is one of the most beautiful of lawn trees. Many 

 fine specimens scattered over the south and west of England and 

 Ireland generally attest this. Tlie largest trees known to the author 

 are at Panjerrick, near Falmouth, which is upwards of 40 feet high, 

 and at Killerton, near Exeter, which is nearly of the same dimensions ; 

 the last named is an offspring of the plant brought from Japan by 

 Captain Eortescue. 



Thuia gigantea. 



A lofty tree attaining at its greatest development a height of 

 150 200 feet, with a trunk tapering from a broadly buttressed base 

 5 6 feet, in diameter at 12 15 feet from the ground, and covered 

 with thin cinnamon-red bark irregularly fissured into long, narrow, 

 plate-like scales. In Great Britain a stately tree of narrowly conical 

 or spire-like outline clothed with branches from the base. Bark of 

 trunk irregularly fissured longitudinally and peeling off in flakes, 

 exposing a red-brown inner cortex. Primary branches close-set, spreading, 

 and much ramified at the distal end. Branchlets slender, often zig-zag 

 or curved, at first green, changing to reddish brown in the third 

 year and ramified in the manner described under the type species, 

 Thuia occidehtalis. Leaves in decussate pairs, persisting on the axial 

 growths several years after becoming effete ; on vigorous shoots ovate 

 or deltoid, acuminate, glandular on the back, adnate to beyond the 

 middle, free at the apex ; on lateral and younger branchlets much 

 smaller, ovate, apiculate, concrescent and scarcely glandular ; yellowish 

 green on the upper exposed side, much darker on the under side 

 of the branchlets. Staminate flowers small, composed of six eight 

 stamens arranged like the leaves. Strobiles very numerous, clustered 

 near the ends of the branchlets, ovoid-cylindric, 0'5 inch long, 

 consisting of eight ten elliptic-oblong scales of which the larger middle 

 ones are fertile, each bearing two three small seeds with notched 

 wings. 



Thuia gigantea, Nuttall in Journ. Phil. Acad. VII. 52(1834). Hooker, W. Fl. Bor. 

 Amer. II. 165 (1840). Endlicher, Synops. Conif. 52 (1847). Parlatore, D. C. 

 Prodr. XVI. 457. Hoopes, Evergreens, 315. Gordon, Pinet. ed. II. 402. 

 Nicholson in Woods and Forests, 190 (1884), with tigs. Brewer and Watson, Bot. 

 Califor. II. 115. Maconn, Cat. Canad. Plants, 460. Sargent in Garden and Forest, 

 IV. (1891), p. 109, with tig. ; and Silva. N. Amer. X. 129, t. 533. Beissner, 

 Nadelholzk. 46, with tig. Masters in Journ. R. Hort. Soc. XIV. 25. 



T. plicata, Don in Lambert's Genus Pimis, ed. I. Vol. II. 19 (1824) ; and 

 ed. II. Vol. II. 114 (1837). Endlicher, Synops. Conif. 51 (1847). Carriere, Traite 

 Conif. ed. II. 166. Masters in Gard. Chron. XXI. ser. 3 (1897), p. 214.* 



* Dr. Masters has here conclusively shown that Don's Thuia plicata and Nuttall's 

 T. gigantea are synonymous ; the former therefore is the older name. Unfortunately 

 Don's name, plicata, became applied to a variety of the type species, T. occidentalis, and 

 has been in use for it during many years.^- As Nuttall's gigantea too has been in continuous 

 use for more than fifty years, setting aside T. Menziesii (Doug.) and T. Lobbi (Hort.) which 

 are only nomina nada, it is here retained on the ground of expediency, and moreover the 

 inconvenience of changing a name so long established is too great to admit of much 

 probability of the substituted name being adopted in forestry and horticulture. 



