LIBOCEDRUS. 251 



and prior to the introduction of the western American and Japanese 

 Cupressinese many varieties were in cultivation which have since 

 disappeared. Of the varieties described above decussata is a "juvenile" 

 form of distinct and even picturesque aspect when seen at its best ; its 

 origin is not accurately known ; funiculata and meldensis are transitional 

 forms in which the adult foliage predominates in the former and the 

 primordial leaves in the latter ; funiculata is also intermediate in habit 

 between the variety pendula and the common form ; meldensis originated 

 at Meaux in France and was at first supposed to be a hybrid between 

 Thuia orientalis and Juniperus virginiana ; but seeds having been 

 produced by a tree growing under favourable conditions and the seedlings 

 from these having for the most part reverted to the normal Thuia 

 orientalis its hybrid origin is thence dispelled.* Pendula, the most 

 remarkable of all the varieties and long believed to be a distinct species, 

 is now known to have originated from the common form ; it was first 

 met with in Japan by Thunberg' (1776 1777) and subsequently by other 

 travellers in that country and also in China ; forms perfectly identical 

 have since been raised in Italy, France and England. It was first 

 cultivated in this country by Mr. Aylmer Lambert in his conservatory at 

 Boytoii in 1832; his plant, the only one then known, had been previously 

 acquired from Messrs. Loddiges of Hackney. 



Although Thuia orientals and its varieties grow in diverse soils and 

 situations, they attain their best development in a retentive loam with a 

 porous but not too free sub-soil and in places not too much exposed to 

 north and north-east winds ; under such conditions the branches are 

 stouter, the branchlet systems more rigid and their colour brighter ; they 

 are rarely killed by our severest winters. 



LIBOCEDRUS. 



Endlicher, Synops. Conif. 42 (1847). Paiiatore, D. C. Prodr. XVI. 453 (1868). 

 Benthain and Hooker, Gen. Plant. III. 426 (1881). Eichler in Engler and Prantl, Nat. 

 Pfl. Fam. 95 (1887). Masters in Journ. Linn. Soc. XXX. 19 (1893). 



A genus of evergreen trees of Thuia-like aspect, mostly with 

 spreading branches and flattened branchlet systems, distinguished by 

 the following characters : 



Leaves dimorphic, scale-like in four ranks decussately arranged, the 

 larger lateral pairs compressed, imbricated, with a decurrent base and 

 sharply keeled ; and almost covering the smaller, concrescent, dorsiventral 

 pairs. 



Flowers monoecious. Staminate flowers terminal, sub-globose or four- 

 sided, composed of eight twelve or more stamens, arranged like the leaves, 

 each with a broadly ovate or sub-orbicular connective bearing four anther 

 cells. 



Strobiles terminal on short lateral branchlets, composed of four six 

 valvate scales of which the uppermost pair and also the lowermost when 

 there are six, are sterile and much smaller than the fertile pair, each of 

 which bear one two winged seeds. 



Libocedrus is thence separated from Thuia by little else than the 

 greater number of stamens in the male flower and the fewer number of 

 scales in the fruit ; but besides being fewer in number the scales of the 



* Beissner, Nadelholzkunde, p. 58. 



