286 SCIADOPITYS. 



Taxodium heterophyllum. 



A low tree or shrub inhabiting marshy places in various parts of China. 

 In Great Britain a low, much-branched shrub of irregular outline. Bark 

 of branchlets chestnut-brown, peeling off in thin scales exposing a light 

 orange-brown inner cortex ; leaf-bearing branchlets deciduous, pseudo- 

 distichous, opposite or alternate, 2 4 inches long.* Leaves dimorphic, 

 of the sterile branches pseudo-distichous, close-set, twenty forty or more 

 on each branchlet, linear-lanceolate, sub-acute, " 0*25 0*5 inch long, the 

 longer leaves at the middle, gradually shorter towards the base and apex, 

 soft light green with an obscure median line above, paler, scarcely 

 glaucescent beneath ; of the fertile branches t small, subulate, adnate at 

 the base, free at the apex. Staininate flowers solitary and terminal on 

 lateral branchlets, sub-globose and consisting (apparently) of four six 

 anthers in decussate pairs. Strobiles terminal on short lateral branchlets, 

 ellipsoid-globose, inclining to obovoid or clavate, about 0'75 inch long, 

 composed of several imbricated, spirally arranged scales of obovate-cuneate 

 shape and unequal size, thickened upwards and minutely tuberculated at 

 the apical margin with a blunt mucro below. Seeds obscurely winged. 



Taxodiiun heterophyllum, Brongniart in Ann. des Sc. Nat. ser. I. Vol. XXX. 

 184 (1833). Bentham in Gen. Plant. III. 429. Beissner, Nadelholzk. 154. 



Glyptostrobus heterophyllus, Endlicher, Synops. Conif. 69 (1847). Carriere, 

 Traite Conif. ed. II. 189. Parlatore, D. C. Prodr. XVI. 438. Gordon, Pinet. 

 ed. II. 126. Masters in Journ. R. Hort. Soc. XIV. 210. 



Eng. Chinese Water Pine. Fr. Taxodier nucif ere. Germ. Chinesische Sumpf-Cypresse. 



Not much is known respecting the geographical distribution of 

 Taxodium heterophyllum beyond the simple fact that it is a native of 

 China j the localities given with herbarium specimens are few and 

 confined to two or three of the eastern provinces. It first became 

 known to science through Lord Macartney's mission to China (1792 

 1795), and is supposed to have been introduced to the Eoyal Gardens 

 at Kew in 1804 by William Kerr. The few plants at present existing 

 in Great Britain were probably introduced by Eobert Fortune who 

 met with it either wild or in cultivation in Foo-chow. 



SCIADOPITYS. 



Siebold and Zuccarmi, Fl. Jap. II. 1, tt. 101, 102 (1842). Endlicher, Synops. Conif. 

 198 (1847). Parlatore, D. C. Prodr. XVI. 435 (1868). Bentham and Hooker, Gen. Plant. 

 III. 437 (1881). Eichler in Engler and Prantl, Nat. Pfl. Fam. 84 (1887). Masters in 

 Journ. Linn. Soc. XXX. 21 (1893). 



A singular moiiotypic genus of much interest in its scientific import, 

 of which the existing species is endemic only in Japan, where it is 

 confined, so far as at present known, to one district. The remoteness 

 of its affinity, comparatively speaking, to any other genus, its peculiar 

 foliation imparting to it an aspect unlike that of any other tree, and 

 its restricted habitat, are all significant facts in the present . condition 

 of Sciadopitys that seem to point to an ancestry far more remote than 



* Branch and branchlets with foliage communicated from Castlewellan, Co. Down, by the 

 Earl of Annesley. 



t As seen in herbarium specimens. 



