CRYPTOMEEIA JAPONICA. 263 



CEYPTOMERIA. 



Don in Trans. L 1111. Soc. XVIII. 166, t. 13, tig. 1 (1839). Endliclier, Synops. 

 Conif. 71 (1847). Parlatore, D. C. Prodr. XVI. 437 (1868). Bentham and Hooker, 

 Gen. Plant. III. 428 (1881). Eichler in Engler and Prantl, Nat. Pfl. Fam. 89 (1887). 

 Masters in Journ. Linn. Soc. XXX. 23 (1893). 



A monotypic genus inhabiting Japan, but now rarely seen wild in 



that country except in inaccessible spots on the lower mountain slopes 



in the central island, and which are believed to have been formerly 



covered with extensive forests of Cryptomeria till the presence of a 



dense population caused their destruction. There is also evidence of 



the Cryptomeria being indigenous in south-west China.* The generic 



characters are readily deducible from the description of the species. 



Cryptomeria is a most interesting genus from a scientific point of 



view, it being one of a very few living representatives of a vegetation 



which has long since disappeared. At present confined to the Far East, 



except so far as it has been introduced into every other land in which 



horticulture is practised, there is abundant evidence in fossil remains 



to show that ancestral forms of the Cryptomeria had a wide distribution 



so early as Triassic and Permian times over a great part of Europe and 



northern Asia, the geological import of which is, that these ancestral 



forms were ingredients of the forests covering the northern part of the 



eastern continent countless ages prior to the appearance of Man. It is 



not improbable, too, that the nearest existing affinity of the Cryptomeria, the 



not less remarkable and interesting genus Athrotaxis, may have descended 



from these same ancestral forms, and which, during the lapse of aeons 



and under the operation of the physical changes constantly but slowly 



affecting the Earth's surface, has gradually receded to the restricted 



insular area the species now inhabit. 



Cryptomeria is from ^V-KTOQ (hidden) and yue'jooe (a share or part), in 

 reference to its obscure relationship to the Cedar. 



Cryptomeria japonica. 



A stately tree, attaining under favourable circumstances a height of 

 100125 feet, usually divested of branches along the lower part of the 

 trunk and crowned with a conical head ; the trunk tapering somewhat 

 abruptly from a broad base and covered with cinnamon-brown bark the 

 exposed part of which (in Great Britain) peels off in long ribbon-like 

 shreds. Primary branches irregularly disposed, close-set in young trees, 

 the longest lowermost ones nearly always decumbent, those above 

 horizontal or ascending ; branchlets mostly lateral or sub-distichous. 

 Leaves persistent four five years, spirally arranged, linear-subulate, 

 acuminate, four-angled, 0'25 0'5 inch long, straight or falcately curved 

 towards the stem, bluntly keeled on the dorsal and sharply keeled on the 

 ventral side, decurrent, dark lustrous green tinged with brown in winter. 

 Staminate flowers numerous, collected in dense spikes about an inch long 

 around the apical end and in "the axils of the leaves of branchlets of the 

 preceding year, cylindric, obtuse, 0*25 inch long, composed of numerous 



* Dr. Henry in the Kew Bulletin, 1897, p. 409. Whether the Cryptomeria discovered 

 by Dr. Henry in Yun-nan conforms to the Japanese type, or is specifically distinct, has nol 

 been determined. 



